Wrathful Skies
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: She never had a real family, at least until her brother's Rain found her. Now she's learning to be Quality while dating a homicidal exiled Prince and trained by Viper. The Wizards won't know what hit them, and neither will the mafia. And things only get more interesting when her brother finally returns to his rightful place. Can the two learn to get along?
1. Chapter 1

Every year, she had the same wish. And every year, it came up empty. Birthdays, Christmas, first star of the night... her wish was always the same.

And not once was it granted.

She had long since run out of tears to cry. It never did any good, outside of wasting water. Her heart was slowly turning cold as ice.

This year, she looked at her little scrap of paper and at the wish she wanted Santa to grant.

 _I wish for a real family._

She felt herself thrown into the cupboard for some made up excuse. She knew the truth. They didn't want to be reminded of her existence in their "perfect" Christmas. So they happily locked her into her pitiful excuse of a room for three days.

She stared at the paper from the tiny amount of light coming from the vent, and something inside her cracks into tiny shards.

She feels a heat welling up inside her body, as rage and pain awakens inside her.

They wanted to have their happy little family, while keeping her locked up?

Fine. They could all burn.

The paper began to crinkle and smolder, until it burst into flames. Strangely, they didn't feel hot. They were comforting.

The door slammed open, revealing a furious walrus who was on the verge of a heart attack. He looked pissed.

" _How many times have we told you, we don't allow freakishness in this house!"_ he screamed shrilly.

He grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and she fought as hard as she could. Unseen, the embers of the scrap of paper flew through the room and up the chimney. Outside, a storm began to form.

He threw her outside and firmly slammed the door shut, bolting it closed so there was no way for her to come inside.

Snow began to fall in thick clumps, and even with her limited experience she could see a blizzard forming. However in the rolling clouds, she could see a figure smiling above. It wasn't a nice smile, and if she still had any feelings left in her heart she would have felt fear.

She took one long look at the figure in the clouds before starting to walk. There was nothing keeping her in this place, and to be honest she was sick of those people. She wished they would disappear and never come back.

At least this time she knew better than to ask help from adults. Teachers never helped, and the few times the police came to their class they pretended to care but nothing ever came of it.

No one would be watching outside. No one would stop her from walking right out of Surrey. And to be honest she had always preferred the outside anyway.

A fleeting glimpse of something on the wind caught her eye at the last second. Her hand lashed out and snagged something as it flew on the breeze.

There was something in one of the pockets.

 _For the road ahead._

With a swirl of icy cold wind, she firmly closed the clasp on the cloak. It was quite warm, and in the other pocket was an old fashioned knife.

She must look like red riding hood with the hood firmly over her eyes. The wind kept it from dragging at least.

Behind her, the footprints she left behind were blown over and hidden by the increasing power of the wind. A sinister sound filled the air, as the demon that had been summoned by the loss of belief enclosed Little Whinging from the world.

* * *

An old man stared at the devastation that had fallen Little Whinging. Arabella had narrowly avoided the fate of her neighbors, as she had realized the danger of the blizzard and had Flooed out of her home the first chance she had, taking as many of her kneazles as she could.

By the time the storm was gone and the area was accessible again, Albus had come immediately, before the muggle authorities found out something was terribly wrong.

He stared at the brass bell tied by ribbon on the door of a small cupboard with a vent. He slowly opened it to find something that filled him with terrible sadness and regret.

It was a bedroom, or as close as a small child could make of one inside the cramped space. In what could only be blood on the wall were the word's "Freak's Room". To further hammer in his terrible mistake, he found slips of paper that slowly became more legible with the same words written on them.

 _I wish for a real family_.

Some of them had dried blood on them, either with fingerprints or from coughing.

There weren't toys inside, save for ones that had clearly been salvaged after being broken. It was barely acceptable for a small infant, let alone one who was almost seven.

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know! I left once I realized the storm was going to close in and left me high and dry for several days, and I barely had enough kibble for my pets!" said Arabella.

Albus picked up the bell and looked at it sadly. It was obvious to those who spent enough time in the old country what had happened.

The girl had summoned Krampus. He took some hope that the bell had been left on this door in particular, because it meant there was at least SOME possibility she had not been taken.

The question now was whether they could find her and undo the damage he had caused with his naive belief that her aunt would treat her like family.

Minerva was never going to let him hear the end of this when she found out, never mind Severus.

* * *

Red eyes watched with hawk-like gaze as the animal grazed. It had taken a lot of patience and more practice than she liked to admit to, but she had learned how to stalk and kill animals.

It had taken a lot longer to learn how to cook the meat in her mouth with the fire she could create from nothing.

That fire had saved her life more than once, either by escaping "well meaning adults", causing distractions, or simply by allowing her to cook without worrying of a blaze starting.

It amused her a lot when she cooked her meals directly in her mouth, almost like a dragon.

Her knife was clutched tightly in her hand. Without any sound at all, she descended upon the helpless animal.

The doe didn't see her coming. She felt zero pity or empathy for the animal.

She could sense the predators nearby. She didn't have much time to get enough meat to fill her up and leave for the scavengers. She knew that she couldn't carry meat on her... without something cold to put it in, it would go bad within days and draw even more predators her way. Never mind how bad it smelled.

She cut the parts she wanted, ignoring the look in the eyes of the doe, before leaving with her catch. Behind her, the wolf pack that had come to accept her presence in the woods of Germany moved in.

At first they disliked her presence, but now there was a wary sort of respect/trust between them. She left her kills for them to find, and they warned her when humans entered the territory. Sometimes they even let her watch the pups from a healthy distance.

It had been almost a year since she left that house far behind.

She pulled her blood red cloak around her tighter once she washed her hands of the deer's blood. With practiced ease she cut the meat into strips she could easily eat, and channeled the flames in her mouth. She ripped into the strip carefully, slowly, so as to allow her stomach to slowly expand. The pieces she didn't eat right away, she cooked with the flames she channeled into her hands. Cooked meat lasted longer.

She was almost to her base camp when she heard the long howl of the wolves. After three months in the forests, she had learned to recognize the sound of a warning.

Humans.

With the grace of a killer, she slipped into the trees and used them to travel, thus keeping her well out of sight from the human hunters.

There were five of them, all armed with guns. She held a silent snarl when she realized they were after the pack.

Seeing them kill the current alpha wolf, she waited for their guard to drop.

Without a sound, she descended on the hunters. The wolves knew she was there, but did not alert them.

The first man fell with a cry of pain, warning the others. Their look of surprise was almost comical.

The second man fell just as quickly as the first, but they were alerted now. They shouted something in German, which she ignored.

The pack attacked when one of the bullets grazed her. Between her blade and their fangs, the humans didn't last long.

Unfortunately, they didn't come alone. Two more teams of humans heard the shouts and came looking.

She glared at the human hunters, all of which were aiming their paltry weapons at her and the pack. No words needed to be said, because it was clear they intended to kill her and the wolves. She was too dangerous to let live, as was the pack.

The flames inside her surged forward, and she felt something on her back burst into a great conflagration. She charged forward, ignoring the bullets and the drag made her briefly look behind her.

She had the wings of a dragon. She could work with that.

Her left arm hung limp, but her mouth was already burning white hot from the flames she held inside. Fire surged forward, causing the men to scream from pain. Her cloak flapped in the wind, and was oddly not burned by the flames.

By the time night fell, all the hunters were dead along with most of the pack.

The few that survived would leave the area, never to return. It wasn't safe.

She watched from the trees as the wolves cajoled and nudged their pups to move. Most of them did, save for the youngest. He was barely old enough to eat meat.

The oldest wolf looked right at her, before growling and nudging the pup in her direction. The message was fairly obvious.

The pack could barely handle the pups they had now. One that young would only hinder their escape from this forest.

She picked the pup up once the pack was a safe distance away. It whined, but curled into her warmth.

"Nacht."

The newly named pup licked her on the face. For the first time in a while, she smiled.

Still, it was time to leave Germany.

Using her newly created wings, she took to the sky, zipping up her stolen hoodie with Nachtwal safely secured inside.

She was across the border long before the massacre was discovered.

* * *

Squalo was not having a good day. He had no idea how the hell he got suckered into an extermination job all the way in this forsaken countryside.

He blamed Mammon though.

The Sword Emperor's mood had been bad before, since the fake coup failed, but the lingering pain of his Sky being sealed in a damn ice cube just made everything worse.

He went deep into the small forest outside the city. Whoever or whatever was attacking the small time Familigia was smart enough to avoid being found. Not even the cameras caught whatever was causing the trouble.

Hence why they went to the trouble of hiring the Varia.

If he hadn't needed an excuse to get far, far from the mansion he never would have snagged the first mission he could get his hands on.

He was about halfway into the forest when he felt the air seem to change. There was a predator in the forest. A dangerous one.

He began to grin. Maybe this shitty assignment wouldn't be so boring after all.

Silence fell all around him...and then came a massive roaring of something heading his way.

He ducked and rolled, narrowly avoiding the jet of flame that nearly took his head off. He looked past the trees to find... a kid?

Eyes of flame, hair black as night with red tints, wearing a cloak that looked like fresh spilled blood. But it was what she was shooting out of her freaking mouth that had his full attention.

Squalo would recognize the Flames of Wrath anywhere. More than that, her Flames felt very familiar.

He nearly got his leg gouged out by the massive black wolf with the cross shaped scar on it's chest coming out of nowhere.

It skidded before retreating to the girl. A girl who, upon closer inspection, could have easily passed for a female version of the Boss.

Too old to be Xanxus' daughter...but it was possible she could be his sister. As far as he was aware the Boss' mother had been alive when he was adopted into the Vongola, so it was _possible_ that she had a daughter after he was taken in.

And then the brat created wings made of fucking Sky Flames that made the whole dragon 'image' impossible to ignore.

Suspicious lineage or not, there was no way in hell he was leaving a girl with Sky Flames that strong where some weak ass Familigia could snag her. Especially if the resemblance to the boss was more than coincidence!

* * *

 _Six hours later..._

Squalo was torn between grinning and swearing his head off.

The little brat had nearly caved his head in, and her fighting skills were pathetic. But what little skill she did have was pretty damn effective, and more than a match for most wannabe hit men that were sent in here.

And the damn wolf was a vicious little shit. He'd get along perfectly with Belphegor at his worst.

The girl was fucking Quality, and if his suspicion about her being related to the Boss was right, he was sure his Sky would be thrilled. So long as the brat wasn't completely feral like she acted.

When he dragged the unconscious brat and her pet wolf to the Varia Headquarters, he quickly side stepped Luss who squealed when he dumped her into one of the empty beds.

"Where did you find this little cutie? I didn't know you were into this sort of thing~!" said Luss.

"Shut up you damn Okama. I want to do a DNA comparison on this brat."

"Oh?"

Squalo sneered at him.

"Don't get any ideas. I think she might be related to the Boss."

Any joking attitude Luss had dropped in an instant. He peered over his glasses at Squalo.

"She's too old."

"I know that, idiot! But she had fucking Wrath Flames and the eyes are damn near identical. She might be his sister."

Luss gave the girl a second look. She certainly felt like a Sky, and if anyone would recognize Wrath Flames on sight it would be Squalo. He had been the closest to the Boss before the Cradle Affair.

His curiosity on whether Squalo might be right had him drawing blood. They still had Xanxus' DNA on file, in case of 'accidents', as was standard procedure. It meant that they didn't have to draw blood every time they wanted to prove paternity...or in case they needed to verify a body as the real deal.

He took a quick sample of her blood, before sealing it in an envelope. It would come back in a few days, and then they could compare it to the Boss' blood.

Hearing the groan, both men turned to look at the girl. When she opened her eyes, Luss could immediately tell why Squalo thought she might be the Boss' sister. The eyes were practically identical in color.

It took a few seconds for her to register where she was, but once she did she tried to get up.

The wolf wasn't much better, but Squalo had made sure to dope it up the first chance he had.

The girl glared at them both, making the comparison between her and the Boss that much stronger.

Somehow Luss had the feeling the next few days waiting for the test results to come back were going to be _very_ interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

"DAMMIT SHITTY BRAT, GET BACK HERE!"

Once it became clear they had no intention of letting her leave, at least not until the test results came back, the girl had made it her personal mission to make things more...exciting...for the Varia. And to make things more irritating, she immediately enlisted the aid of the self-proclaimed Prince, Belphegor.

About the only upside to her teaming up with the Ripper Prince was learning she wasn't _actually_ feral like Squalo feared, but she did have a very strong dislike for humans in general. Considering she had been living on her own in the wilds long enough to end up with a wolf for a partner, it was obvious she was either abused or left to survive in the streets. Likely both. She also spoke English with a distinct British accent, which narrowed down her country of origin a good deal, considering it was highly doubtful she would have managed to make it from America all the way to the wilds of Rome.

The girl cackled with glee, before ducking outside. She crawled along the walls like a spider. Squalo cursed her out, before trying to cut her off before she ducked into one of the rooms of someone annoying. Like Mammon.

The miser midget had not been pleased when the girl broke into their rooms, and made _him_ pay for the affront.

He ran into several rooms, slamming doors before he realized that the brat was nowhere to be found. The wolf was still in one of the empty rooms with the door firmly locked.

Squalo was about to run into the top level when one of the mooks came up to him.

"WHAT?" he demanded.

The mook handed him the letter he had been impatiently waiting for. He went straight to the Sun division to compare the results.

"It's here?" asked Luss.

Squalo handed him the envelope. The Sun officer took it and pulled up Xanxus' results. Squalo was practically reading over his shoulder.

"Well?"

"She's his half-sister, at the very least. From the tests I did before, she's about Belphegor's age, or close to it."

Squalo let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Now that he knew for a fact the little brat was the Boss' sister, there was no way they could get rid of her. Then he remembered something important.

"You're helping me find the brat and giving her a full check-up!"

Luss didn't argue, though he found it interesting that they ended up with Mammon helping them search without demanding payment. Eventually they found the girl in the one room no one was allowed to go in.

Xanxus' personal suite.

Squalo slowly opened the door, and nearly got hit with a massive fireball made of Wrath Flames.

"VOI! Watch it you damn brat!" he shouted in English.

The girl growled, her stance indicating she'd go into fight mode rather than run off.

Mammon was not in a patient mood. With a thought, vines captured the girl before she could attack.

"Shut up and listen brat. Time is money, and I highly doubt you could afford my rates to let you go," said Mammon flatly.

She remained silent, but her glare was easily on the same level as the Boss in a foul mood.

Squalo held up both pieces of paper, which were translated into English since he doubted she could read anything else. He made sure she got a good long look at it before letting the information process through her head.

"So what? You found some weird anomaly in my blood or something?" she demanded.

"This test proves you're our Boss' half-sister," said Luss gently.

"I don't have family. I left that bitch and her fat husband years ago. If I did have family, why didn't they get me out of that hell hole?" she snarled.

"Because the Boss had no idea you existed. If we did, you better believe we would have had you removed from whatever shit hole you used to live in," said Squalo flatly.

The Boss was big on family, and having a sister would have been something he would have dealt with personally. Considering how skinny she was and the sheer level of trust issues she had with people, it was pretty damn obvious she had been heavily abused.

Mammon slowly released the girl from the illusion.

"If you let us give you a proper check up, you can eat whatever you want from the kitchens," said Luss.

"Where's Nacht?"

"He's in his own room," said Squalo.

The girl reluctantly followed them, but her mistrust of them was pretty clear. Though considering he had found her living in the woods, far from most civilized company he wasn't entirely surprised.

* * *

 _An hour later..._

Luss took one look at the sheer number of scars, and became very bloodthirsty on her behalf.

It did not help when she told them what her name was, though at first he thought she was calling _him_ a freak because of his tendencies.

The girl honestly had no idea what her own name was. The woman who 'raised' her called her freak, and all the teachers had called her "Ms. Potter" and never referred to her by her first name. Even street kids picked up a name they could call their own.

"Che. From now on your name is Puppy until you find one you like best," said Squalo.

"Puppy?" she repeated, tilting her head.

"You look and act like a lost puppy, and until the Boss comes back you're going to be staying with the miser midget. The last thing I want to deal with is explaining to him that we lost his half sister because of spies."

"Puppy, since anyone under officer has a code name."

"We're going to train the crap out of you so you can handle normal missions. The more you look like one of the mooks, the better off you'll be."

"Hiding in plain sight?" she asked.

"First we're going to figure out which other Flames you have, so we don't have to deal with anyone figuring it out."

Puppy, as her official code name was now, had three different Flames. Sky, Mist and a Sun secondary. Her Sun Flames were mostly internal, and only activated when she was in fight mode.

Explained how she survived a six-hour fight against Squalo.

"Once you're ready to go on missions you're going to be paired with Belphegor and Mammon, so they can keep your ass alive and avoid any Guardians harmonizing with you. The less people know you're a Sky, the better off we'll all be. If any asks about your Wrath Flames, claim you were 'inspired' by the Varia Boss and that you're using your Mists to copy him. And no flying!"

She pouted at that. She liked to fly...but she understood the necessity of keeping a low profile.

"No flying?"

"Not outside controlled training areas. We're trying to keep you alive until the Boss comes back, not killed because of some youthful rebellion. If someone sees your Sky Flames on a mission, you kill them and destroy any evidence."

"What about Nacht?"

"He's your bodyguard in the mansion. Wolves are too noticeable on a mission unless it's in remote areas like where I found you."

She could accept that, and to be honest Nacht was a bit big to fit on a plane and he really hated cities.

* * *

Puppy found her new life much better than before, even if she did give people heart attacks when they saw her eating raw meat straight from a bowl and not get sick. Luss had to watch her literally _cook_ the meat in her mouth or over her flame covered hands before he allowed it.

She had a proper bed, she was fed regularly and best of all she was able to properly shower for the first time in years. More importantly she felt like she actually belonged here.

It wasn't safe, they didn't coddle her, and they trained her ass off.

But they didn't treat her like a freak, or expect something out of her she wasn't willing to give. About the only "special treatment" she got was that she was bunking with the Mist Officer...at the cost of half her pay on missions.

So she trained, she learned. At the very least she seemed to have made a friend in the psychotic kid known as Belphegor because of her 'cooking meat in her mouth' trick.

He seemed downright fascinated by it, even going so far as to present her freshly caught and killed animals for her to cook. Belphegor and Nacht got along together well, and were quickly as thick as thieves.

She was encouraged to do her best, wasn't treated like crap, and was making an actual friend.

In short it was a major improvement over what she had lived with before she left England.

Besides, it meant she had a chance to learn more about her half-brother she had no idea existed before now.

So what if she collapsed on her bed almost every night? So what if they put her through her paces to the point she did little more than eat, train, wash up and sleep. Her social life was nonexistent, and yet she felt more alive than ever.

Six months after being found by Squalo and having her identity as the half-sister of the "Boss" (who's name was Xanxus, apparently) she went through the Varia Trials...and left her enemy in the dust.

She was not a normal girl. She had little issue with killing, because she had lived with survival of the fittest for several years. She was a dragon, not a princess.

Something that endlessly amused Belphegor the one time he tried to call her "Princess" and she nearly set him on fire. After that he started referring to her as the Dragon Princess.

Even if people thought her 'code name' was weird.

"Alright Puppy, it's time for you to pick a weapon. You're doing well with the basic ones, but any real warrior is going to need something they can rely on that defines them," said Luss cheerfully.

Puppy grinned, before pulling up a series she had found during her limited free time. It was somewhat weird having Belphegor show her how to use the internet.

"Oh... What's this?"

"It's a series called _RWBY_. I found it by accident while looking for interesting videos and got hooked," said Puppy.

"So what did you have in mind, Puppy?"

She pointed at the main character, who had a familiar red hood.

"I want to build a scythe, or at least a custom sniper rifle that can change into another weapon. I'm a distance fighter, so I should act like it."

"I'll agree that your dragon breath is a distance attack. And a sniper rifle would give you a lot more range to work with...and that outfit is absolutely adorable!"

"...I just unleashed a new way of outfits for the Varia, didn't I?"

Luss grinned at her.

"You and I are going on a shopping spree~!"

"What about the restrictions?" asked Puppy.

Luss smirked.

"That only qualifies if there's no one with you. Besides I'm sure Mammon would enjoy coming with. I always get the best prices with them around," said Luss.

More like he picked up the items, and Mammon did the haggling, and everyone came away happy...except whoever was stuck carrying all the clothes back.

* * *

 _Several hours later..._

Luss looked at the upgraded wardrobe of the Puppy with open approval. The goth-red look she was in suited her perfectly, from the thick boots to the ruffled skirt to the corset. That it bore a strong resemblance to the character from the series (save for her hair being too long and in the wrong style) made it more fun.

Though all that was missing from the image were the feathers. She'd make an almost perfect female version of the Boss if she had those.

Instead she had a rather dark image of "Red Riding Hood Gone Rogue" look going on, complete with the pet wolf.

The image she gave off was that Red Riding Hood had chosen to tame the wolf and live rogue in the woods, rather than be a good girl and go to grandma's. The vibe she gave off also said she killed the huntsman and stole the man's weapons to deal some damage.

In short, she looked a lot like Varia Quality in all the right ways.

Too bad she had to hide until the Boss came back.

"Mu... it looks good on her," said Mammon.

"I know, right? Plus you two totally match!"

Mammon had a sudden idea, one that would allow the girl to wear whatever she wanted and still hide in plain sight.

The girl was a Sky/Mist primary, Sun secondary.

"I could always make her my apprentice. Train her in the finer details of Mist Flames and illusions," said Mammon.

"It's perfect, darling~!"

No one would look twice at an apprentice, so long as they kept their head down. It also neatly explained why someone so young was living in the Varia Headquarters, and why she would be with Mammon and Bel for every mission.

And best of all it meant he could dress her up and she would be able to wear whatever she wanted on missions.

* * *

 _Age Eleven..._

There was the sharp sound of a long range gun firing, a loud squawk, followed by the sudden snap of a large pair of jaws grabbing on to the fallen animal.

It was getting ridiculous how many of those stupid birds she kept having to snipe. Otherwise the damn things would clutter up the area around Headquarters, annoy Squalo and have her pay deducted for cleaning up the mess they made. On the plus side she was getting a lot of target practice and Nacht was having a fine time catching the dead birds and eating them.

"How many does that make?" asked Luss, handing her a mug of tea.

"28," said Puppy.

"Mu... Such a waste of money," said Mammon, picking up scraps of parchment.

It seemed all the birds were carrying them, all in envelopes or tied neatly into scrolls on the bird's legs. The only reason most of them survived was because Nacht was more interested in the meat.

All of which were addressed to someone they didn't know, and it was getting seriously annoying having to clean up the mess.

"Oh, Puppy... Guess who's got a mission later today?" said Luss with a grin.

She perked up at that, her ruffled skirts moving as she got up from where she had been lying down.

Her outfit was loosely based off "Ruby Rose" from the series _RWBY_ , save for the fact she didn't have the same emblem on her pouch. The main character had a silver rose, Puppy had a dragon biting it's own tail in orange and indigo. Her primary colors were red with black accents. Her hair reached down past her neck and was held back by white and black ribbons.

She would wear feathers, except then the resemblance between her and her half-brother would be too strong for Nono to ignore. And that raised the risk factor.

Puppy threw the hood over her face and kept her eyes obscured. With her cloak and obscured face, she looked like a taller, red version of Mammon.

Said Mist officer promptly took their spot on her shoulder. She was so used to it by now she didn't even react or slow her stride.

Unfortunately their mission was nearly blown because of those damn birds. She couldn't shoot them to keep them from bothering her, and the things seemed to hone in on her location.

She took one look at the barn owl and had enough.

She snagged the letter and took it straight to Mammon.

The Mist Arcobaleno took the letter and practically ripped the thing open. The birds had been very annoying.

Mammon took one look at the letter, before their face schooled into pure annoyance.

"Read. Tell me what you see and don't see."

Puppy took the offered letter, and scanned it.

"Either delusional or very well hidden."

"Well hidden," said Mammon.

"Not very well educated, and very outdated if the letter is anything to go by. Nobles?"

"Go on."

"Arrogant," said Puppy with a disdainful sniff.

"Good. It seems your father signed you up for a backwater education in Scotland and they expect you to be so happy to be invited that you'll say yes without thinking things through. I'll arrange a trip to England to sort this out."

"Is there anyway for me to tell them no? I mean there aren't even the bare bones of proper school books on this list, it's all nonsense."

There wasn't even a single English, science, math or world history book on there. And if that wasn't a major warning sign, nothing was.

And the less said about the 'required materials' the better.

One look at the list and she immediately knew she wanted nothing to do with the place.

Somehow she just knew that this 'magical world' was going to be a major headache.


	3. Chapter 3

Puppy was not in a good mood. Mammon was the same as always, but both were very, very glad that they had managed to drag Squalo along with them.

Officially, Puppy's guardian was her elder brother. However since he was currently indisposed, Squalo acted in his stead.

He was intimidating enough to keep the 'wizards' from bothering them.

They made their way to the bank, where they would get things sorted out.

Puppy had no desire to see this...Hogwarts. If the books were any indication, it wasn't much of a school to begin with.

She barely paid any mind to what Mammon was haggling with the...goblins. She was decent at math, but when it came to investments and managing large sums and properties, Mammon was much better at it.

Squalo was just there for intimidation purposes and so the wizards didn't get any ideas "above their station".

"Come along Puppy. We need to find the barrister's office to settle things officially with the idiots before we head home. You're going to be receiving new tutors soon," said Squalo gruffly.

Puppy took the news with a grain of salt. If she wasn't on a mission, training or otherwise occupied, she had to share tutors with Bel. He might be a genius but having someone to compete against made the work go faster.

So getting new tutors for magic lessons wasn't that big a deal.

She was firmly engrossed in her language homework while Mammon argued specifics. It didn't help that the miser midget had seen the _massive_ section based on the Puppy's supposed name.

The 'trademark scar' had long since faded, but the emotional and mental ones would take longer.

As far as she was concerned, her name was Puppy until she decided to pick a new one for herself. It was supposed to be an exercise in helping her regain control over her life, being able to pick what her name was. The thing is she had no idea what she wanted to call herself.

Hence why her name was still "Puppy" on the official documents.

It drove the idiots sent to spy on them nuts trying to figure out who Puppy was.

Squalo tapped her shoulder with his right hand, and they left the barrister's office. She mostly followed the shiny silver hair, not really paying attention while she kept reading her book. Mammon was on her shoulder, mostly as a secondary guard.

It wasn't until they reached the hotel that she asked questions or even spoke at all.

"Well?"

"Apparently you're famous for surviving some Dark Lord, and you grew up in a castle attended by servants or some nonsense. Everyone's got an unrealistic expectation of you, and there haven't been any proper repayment for the 'seized' property or the merchandising that sprang up. There's also the fact that someone claimed your guardianship illegally, and that the will was sealed and the keys 'confiscated' by the one supposedly taking care of you."

Puppy gave Mammon a flat look.

"You can have forty percent of any investments you make in my name, and fifty percent of whatever profits they made off my name and image. I want everything above board and out of their hands," she said flatly.

"Agreed. From what little I've seen, profits have stagnated in this particular magical community and the gold exchange rate is extremely skewed against them. Manipulating the system to drain them dry of their gold supply will be child's play. As for the merchandising rights, it seems whoever was supposed to deal with it botched the job, as the goblins need official approval to pursue it. And that's not including the property that was seized and turned into a monument without your approval or knowledge, or the items that were left behind inside. I anticipate large profits for both of us," said Mammon, rubbing their hands with glee.

The fact Puppy wasn't really interested in the money made their job easier. She was much like Belphegor in that respect.

So long as she had enough to pay her expenses she could care less.

"And what of the owls?"

"They will no longer be an issue. You'll officially be labeled as an 'at-home' student, and as long as you pass the required tests they have no hold on you," said Squalo.

"Good. The less I see of this country, the happier I'll be," said Puppy darkly.

* * *

 _Three days later..._

Puppy was less than pleased. Some old man was trying to keep her in this forsaken country and wanted her to attend the school. Too bad for him, Puppy wanted nothing to do with the place.

And even less fortunate, she had every reason not to want to return.

She took one look at the man and choose to never be in the same room as him if she could possibly help it. She didn't need to be around him for very long to know that letting him have any say in her life was a _bad idea_.

Especially since she did vaguely remember the one who _left_ her on that doorstep all those years ago. He had a long beard and odd glasses just like this headmaster did.

Finally after a week of coming to England, they were able to leave. The barristers Mammon hired in her name would continue to sue the pants off the idiots who wrote those books and sold those items in her image.

Squalo was just happy to be far, far away from the backwards place.

* * *

Luss had been anticipating this moment since they found the Boss' baby sister. Namely when puberty hit and hit hard.

Puppy wasn't freaking out because of the bleeding or the stomach cramps or the icky feeling she was experiencing. No, her panic came from a very amusing source.

Namely the fact she had spent so much time in the wilds she that she knew perfectly well what happened when female animals bleed between their legs. She honestly believed she was going into heat of all things.

Luss sat the girl down after giving her some Midol and had her listen while she ate chocolate chip cookies. Her normal go-to sweet was pop tarts, but considering what she was going through, chocolate was more appropriate.

"Look darling, you're not going into heat. Humans, unlike other animals, do not bleed during heat cycles. While they do have them, the bleeding will happen once a month for anywhere from a few days to a week. During that time you'll feel 'icky' and not very charitable to others. For the next few years your chest and hips will grow and you'll start to find boys...or girls...quite a bit more interesting."

"...So basically I'll undergo the same changes as a female wolf, just without the puppies and it's permanent," she summed up.

"Close enough. You can come to me with any questions and I'll show you what you'll need to buy for that time of the month. Word of advice, be sure to stock up on chocolate and certain medicines once you figure out what the schedule is going to be."

"It's going to suck, isn't it."

"One of the prices of being a woman, darling," said Luss.

"Thanks, Sorella," said Puppy.

At least the Sun officer had been brutally honest and hadn't tried to lie about it. She knew about mating, after all she lived in the forest for two years before Squalo found her. It made the discussion that much easier and less awkward.

"Expect a shopping trip soon, Darling!" Luss called out from his domain.

Puppy winced.

At least she could get some new clothes out of this. Mammon was a lot nicer to her because she was a steady source of income from the inbred hicks in England.

The Mist Arcobelano was a greedy thing, but at least they were honest about it. They also automatically deducted from their 'fee' whenever she asked questions or needed information.

* * *

 _Five days later..._

Puppy looked at the selection of training bras with distaste. While she could see the practical value of wearing them under her clothes and during training, she really didn't like wearing them. She could tolerate corsets, because even if they were cut open the underlying shirt remained safe. That and it felt more like she was wearing armor and was aesthetically appealing.

"Ah, ah, ah! Now that you're starting to become an adult, we'll need to change up your wardrobe."

"Can I still wear my shirts and jeans?"

"We're going to change them up and give you more room to grow in," said Luss.

Puppy was not pleased, but she knew better than to argue with Luss. Her sorella had really good taste in fashion and color coordination. He also had a very good idea of how one should present themselves.

Since she was taking her first step into becoming a proper adult in the eyes of the civilians, she needed to change up her wardrobe to reflect that. At least he wouldn't pick something too trashy.

It was to some amusement of the older Guardians that once Belphegor started hitting puberty he started taking note of the Puppy. It didn't help that Luss had given her some more mature outfits to wear, or that she had a habit of walking around in a t-shirt that exposed her mid-drift and jeans that hugged her hips in just the right way. While she was slowly getting in the habit of wearing bras, most of the time she forgot unless Mammon reminded her.

It was rather entertaining for all involved to watch Puppy go into the kitchens in the morning and slowly wake up while biting anyone who tried to steal her pop tarts. The girl was practically a zombie until she woke up, and would crash on the table to slowly eat her pop tarts with her head down on the surface.

Any conversation to be had by her would be mumbled at best until she had some caffeine in her.

Needless to say Bel might have used that time to annoy his best friend...except he had a tendency to sleep in late and had to be woken up.

It was shortly after she was 'properly awake' that Luss dropped the bomb that had most of those who knew _who_ she was scrambling.

"So darling, what do you want for your birthday?"

Puppy looked up from her breakfast and strong coffee to give him an odd look.

"How do you know when my birthday is?" asked Puppy.

Luss grinned.

"Really Puppy, did you think we are all blind? You perk up around the tail end of July, but it doesn't disappear until the first of August," said Luss.

"What," said Bel.

"I'm guessing thirty, thirty-first?"

"July Thirty-first, at least from what little I've figured out. I never really celebrated my birthday," said Puppy frowning. She didn't see what the big deal was.

"Never?" said Luss frowning. "What about Christmas?"

Puppy's look was flat and somewhat dead inside.

"The only thing I ever wanted from birthday or any other gift-giving holiday is a real family I could actually claim, and ever year it came up empty. It's the reason why I left England during that weird blizzard in the first place. I realized the only way I was going to be able to improve my life would be to quit waiting on the adults to do their damn jobs and simply leave."

"Weird blizzard?" repeated Mammon, listening intently. "Would this freak blizzard be in the area of Surrey?"

"Little Whinging, why?"

Mammon pulled out their laptop and dragged up an unusual news article.

"You left around Christmas, correct?"

"Roughly around that time. I wasn't about to stick around while they pretended to have a perfectly normal family after they tossed me out in the cold because I was so angry I manifested my Flames for the first time and burned up the last letter to Santa I ever wrote," she replied.

"What?" asked Squalo.

"Krampus. It has to be," said Mammon.

"Who's Krampus?" asked Luss.

"Krampus is an ancient spirit commonly considered as the 'darker' side of Santa. Where Santa brings presents, Krampus comes to punish families. There are several stories of the dark spirit being summoned and wiping out almost every family within a certain area."

Everyone turned to look at Belphegor, who was yawning.

"What?"

"How the hell do you know that?" asked Squalo staring.

"It's an Eastern European legend. It's considered a warning not to let petty differences fester in families without letting them bleed during the tail end of the year. If the 'Christmas spirit' is lost in those who are supposed to appreciate it the most, I/E children, then Krampus comes to remind them they're supposed to be a family. Or he comes to punish children who don't harbor the proper spirit at all, usually with a Birch branch and chains. I heard it often enough from my parents when they bitched about my behavior," said Belphegor, before he snagged a box from the cabinet.

"My Pop Tarts!" protested Puppy.

"Shishishi..."

"So you're saying the Puppy summoned this ancient spirit?" asked Mammon.

"What does this Krampus guy look like?" asked Puppy.

"Details vary, but the most consistent image is one that imitate the Horned God of the Celts called Cernunnos. He's half-goat, half-demon according to legends."

Mammon shifted the view of the laptop screen to where she could see it.

"Oh, _him_. I remember seeing something like that in the clouds when the wind picked up. Come to think of it, I got my cloak around that time, along with my first knife. It was flying on the wind."

"Voi. I have a headache," said Squalo.

"Shishishi... What's that article?" asked Belphegor.

Mammon let him read it over their shoulder.

 _Mystery Attack on Christmas! Residential Area wiped out overnight!_

The article went on to state that over a short period of time (within three days) the suburb of Little Whinging was almost wiped clean save for a few survivors, all under the age of nine. Houses were heavily damaged, people were missing and there were multiple signs of a violent struggle or death. There was an anomaly of what looked like hooved feet on the scene, likely some novelty shoes.

Belphegor read the article, before nodding to himself.

"Definitely Krampus. He's known to spare children sometimes, those truly innocent or still harboring the right amount of spirit."

"So, what are we going to do for your birthday," said Luss, changing the subject.

"I'm fine with anything. I never really celebrated it."

"Shishishi..."

Somehow, she didnt really like the grin that was spreading on Belphegor's face. Or it could be because he stole the last of her Pop Tarts. Fifty-fifty.

* * *

She woke up three days later on the day she calculated to be her birthday and found the room empty. She went down to breakfast...and was startled awake by the Varia officers who knew who she was.

"Happy birthday, darling~!" said Luss cheerfully.

"Shishishi... the dragon princess looks properly awake for once," said Belphegor.

"Hwa...? What's going on?" she asked, baffled.

"It's a birthday party, darling~! Did you really think we would ignore you turning thirteen?" said Luss almost disappointed.

Puppy had no idea how to react to this. She had no experience on what one did at birthday parties, even small ones like this.

But she would admit it was a lot of fun. More than she could ever remember having on this day.

Besides, she got to have fun shoving some cake into Belphegor's face... payback for stealing her pop tarts.


	4. Chapter 4

**If you want and idea of how big Nacht is, imagine the wolves from _Warcraft_ that the Orcs were riding. **

* * *

Puppy was eating her dinner when Mammon came in the kitchen with an annoyed expression.

"Who are we going to be bleeding dry of their money?" she asked.

"You've somehow been _selected_ as a Champion for some idiotic tournament for the fools in England. Despite the fact you've never attended their schools or even signed anything that they could get their claws on."

For security purposes, Puppy never signed anything that wasn't on a tablet for exactly this reason.

With the right medium or tool, any magical could pull this sort of stunt.

"Wait, _what_? Please tell me this doesn't mean what I think it means," she practically begged.

"Unfortunately I've looked through the 'official' copy of the magical contract associated with the artifact in question. They only put in the age restriction _this_ year, so the goblet does not recognize it as part of the contract. If you want to avoid losing your magic or your life, you'll have to participate. Fortunately nothing specifies you have to do more than show up for the three tasks and the ball. I refuse to give up my internet access just to pander to their delusions of grandeur," said Mammon flatly.

"Or, and this is just me being a troll, we go there and make them regret bringing us and you can rob them blind through high stakes poker to pay for the satellite connection so you can keep the internet," said Puppy grinning evilly.

"Go on."

"Well correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Belphegor from a magical lineage and attending the same classes I am for magic?"

Mammon was silent, before a slow and evil grin appeared on their face.

"We would need to take precautions. These people are notorious for inbreeding, and despite the reparations I've claimed from them they are dead set on reclaiming you. Better to insure that we don't have to come and discreetly kill off an entire family later," said Mammon.

"How?"

"Betrothal contract."

Belphegor who was walking in at that moment to get breakfast, paused and looked at them both.

"Who?"

"You two. An easily breakable contract...by only you two or your next of kin...will keep the idiots from trying to latch onto you and give us more work."

Belphegor eyed Puppy with an odd look. At least she thought he did. Hard to tell with the bangs covering half his face.

"I could do worse," he announced, before rummaging for food.

"Hands off the pop tarts or else!" she called out. Then what he said caught up to her. "Wait, what?"

"I am a Prince. Betrothal contracts aren't that uncommon and again, I could do worse," said Belphegor flatly.

Puppy's face turned a solid red color.

"It's only to insure that you don't end up accidentally contracted to marry one of those inbred hicks," said Mammon.

"And if Xanxus doesn't like it?"

"There's a reason why we're using the next-of-kin clause. He's the closest to you that's still alive. If he had a problem with it, then he can break it and no one else."

Puppy relaxed at that. It wasn't that she couldn't stand Belphegor...they were best friends and most of their arguing was the light and playful kind...but she wasn't remotely ready to consider marriage.

She barely found either gender interesting enough to date!

It didn't take long for the trio to find themselves in Squalo's office.

"So let me get this straight. The Puppy got picked for this...tournament...without actually being in the castle and because of how the contract was written there's no way for her to get out of it."

"The contract is ironclad, and only in extreme cases will the role of 'champion' be overturned."

"Extreme as in..."

"The only reason they stopped the tournament originally was because of the death toll. There is only one case in which a champion was removed from the tournament and that was because of conflicting magical signatures."

"...Why do I have a feeling that's not an option for her?" asked Squalo.

"The only way to cause a conflicting signature in a witch is for them to be pregnant. I don't know about you, but I don't want the Boss to kill us because his sister got knocked up at fourteen just to get out of a ridiculous tournament she could probably win," deadpanned Mammon.

Squalo choked.

"Alright, how long is this going to take?" he asked, changing the subject.

"There's three tasks and a mandatory ball. Nothing in the rules states she has to stay there during the entire year, and there's a small village thirty miles from the school. It would be child's play to arrange for us to take over a house as a base of operations," said Mammon.

"Voi. Bikes are cheap, and both brats know how to drive. You can take missions in between these...tasks... from England," said Squalo.

Thirty miles wouldn't take more than an hour at most to drive, especially with off-road bikes.

"I heard the words 'mandatory ball'," said Luss.

"Apparently the Puppy is being roped into some shitty tournament and part of the requirements is to open a ball at Yule," said Squalo.

Luss squealed.

"We are going to make you look fabulous darling!"

"The Shitty Prince is going with her," continued Squalo, enjoying the pissed off vibe from the brat.

Luss squealed even louder. And then Mammon decided to twist the knife on them both even further.

"I'm writing up a betrothal contract between the two of them that the Boss can break when he is back. Since he's Belphegor's legal guardian and the next-of-kin for the Puppy, it means that we won't have to deal with the idiots trying to rope the two of them into staying," said Mammon.

Luss about swooned from delight.

"You two are going as the Prince and Princess of this ball, darlings~!"

"I hate you both so much," Bel told Squalo and Mammon. He hated shopping. Especially clothes shopping with Luss.

 _Two days later..._

Puppy inspected the newly renovated home with distaste. She _hated_ England. At least she didn't have to give up her internet connection.

* * *

It was supposed to be an almost normal Hogwarts lunch. At least, it was until the sound of something making an unholy racket occurred outside, followed by loud yelling in what sounded a lot like French.

Quite a few students looked at the Beauxbatons girls...most of whom looked appalled and shocked.

Without much warning, the Great Hall doors slammed open, revealing a rider on some strange metal contraption that those of normal origins immediately recognized as a bike. An off-road one, to be specific, painted in blood red with silver crowns.

Behind it was a massive wolf with a girl in a red hood riding it shouting at the driver of the bike, who had a creepy grin on his face.

The boy shouted something back in Russian.

"Mu. Both of you shut up. I'll buy more pop tarts later," said a figure sitting astride the wolf.

The girl calmed down, but didn't get off the wolf.

"Excuse me, but what in the blazes is going on here?" demanded McGonagall, her voice furious.

The third figure (it was impossible to tell if they were male or female) got off the wolf and calmly walked around it.

"The Italian Ministry informed us of the fact that my apprentice was selected for your...tournament. And that attendance is mandatory," said the figure.

"And you are?" asked Professor Dumbledore.

"I am Mammon, the personal teacher of Lady Potter. This is her betrothed, Prince Belphegor, who came for moral support," said Mammon bluntly.

Dumbledore paused.

"Where is Lady Potter?" he asked carefully.

The girl had claimed her titles on her fourteenth birthday, a full year early. She was also in the process of having her N.E.W.T.s evaluated.

Mammon helped the girl on the wolf down, and she threw back her red hood. It was a blood red with two crosses made of silver pinning her cloak to her outfit. Her hair was a deep black with red tints and her eyes were a red color that made him cringe. Her face was youthful, but full of something he was hard to place.

The thing that struck him the most was that the familiar lighting bolt scar was missing. As in it was completely _gone_.

The girl held herself like an adult, and there was a steel in her that told him it would not be in his best interest to argue at the moment.

"Perhaps we should take this discussion somewhere a bit more private."

"An empty classroom will suffice. From what I understand, this castle boasts of many such rooms as the curriculum was whittled down to the bare minimum of magical training," said Mammon.

Dumbledore took the veiled jibe at the standards of the castle with ease. This person had basically announced they found the education provided by the school to be inadequate for their apprentice. It also meant he would have to do some serious groveling or compromises if he even remotely wanted the girl to stay in the school.

He was more concerned about this betrothed. There were very few magical royalty left and even fewer fit the description of this prince. And those that did, only one would be in the right age range.

He had a very, very bad feeling this "Prince Belphegor" was in fact the missing prince of a small magical nation in Slovenia, one that recent had a rather bloody incident involving the younger twin son of the king.

A boy that went missing after nearly murdering his older brother, the heir.

Sirius would have to be warned. The last thing their Savior needed was to be betrothed to a murderous psychopath like that boy! As the Head of the Black family and her godfather, he could have the contract reviewed and possibly broken.

Puppy was staying next to Nacht with the very unhappy woman with the stern expression approached her.

"I'm afraid you'll have to remove your...pet...from the great hall. We do not allow wolves as acceptable pets inside this castle."

She said nothing, but pulled out a translated copy of the paperwork Mammon had filed along with the betrothal agreement.

Professor McGongall took the papers and scanned them. Her frown became more pronounced.

"I see. My apologies, but please keep your _familiar_ from causing a disruption during classes," she replied.

When tested by the Italian Ministry, they found Puppy had a very strong familiar bond with Nacht. Ergo she could legally take him into magical enclaves...or schools...and they couldn't do a thing about it so long as she had him under control.

She was so going to abuse that to keep the English far, far from her.

Belphegor grinned, standing next to her.

* * *

Sirius was overjoyed. His goddaughter had returned to England, he was free and clear from the lies that had left him in a hell hole for twelve years, and the Headmaster had given him permission to come to the castle to meet her.

Remus would come, but he was recovering from a particularly rough full moon.

What he found when he got there threw him for quite a loop.

His pup was with a boy wearing a crown and arguing in a foreign language over some pastry, while a third person (he couldn't tell the gender) sat reading what he clearly identified as the financial section of the _London Times_.

The third figure (who the Headmaster had warned him was his pup's magical teacher) looked right at him and frowned.

Sirius went up to meet the headmaster, but the feeling of that person's gaze stuck with him.

His pup seemed happy enough, even if the company she kept was odd.

"You called me in, Professor?" said Sirius.

"Ah, Sirius! Have a seat dear boy. And you know you can call me Albus."

What followed was mostly speculation and conjecture, but considering the reason WHY he had been falsely imprisoned without a damn trial for twelve years, Sirius was taking the information with more grains of salt than the headmaster would have liked.

"Let me get this straight. There is no _official_ record of a Mammon Esper with the Italian Ministry, the betrothal contract that was filed two days before they came to England was set with a next-of-kin clause that does not specify who it is, and there is no listed residence for my goddaughter or anything concrete save for the records of her tests. And you called me here why exactly?" he asked.

Several facts didn't add up, and after being declared a free man Sirius had the rose tinted glasses ripped from him permanently. Besides, he was a Black. He had a lot of potential information the headmaster couldn't touch without getting busted for no matter how careful he was.

"I wish for your assistance in ascertaining whether or not the betrothal should stick. As her next-of-kin and as her magically bound godfather, you have jurisdiction over such contracts."

Ah, so _that_ was his game. He wanted to nix the betrothal for some reason, and possibly secure a reason to keep her here. It was bad enough she openly declined an invitation to the school, this was all about politics and saving face.

She might end up with Draco, her cousin, or possibly one of the Weasley boys as a 'payment' to the family for the loss of their youngest daughter two years ago or for serving him.

Let it never be said he didn't develop a sense of paranoia after having his name cleared, especially considering who he grew up with. Walburga was a crazy bitch, but his father Orion knew how to play the game and play it well.

He would find out for himself how the girl felt about the matter and what her home life was like before he made any moves.

Besides, he had information Dumbledore didn't...like the fact that Lily Evans wasn't her mother, but her _adopted_ mother. It wasn't exactly something they ever planned on sharing, because there were very clear laws about bastards and very few of them were _nice_.

* * *

His Pup went straight for Hogsmeade with her group.

It was of little surprise when her teacher rented a secure room in the Three Broomsticks, or that they secured the area further the moment the door closed behind him.

Though he had to admit, as distractions went to throw someone off balance, she was exceptionally good at it.

"Why do you look like a longer haired version of the one who played the main bad guy off _Air Force One_?" she asked confused, with a distinct Italian accent.

Sirius blinked, before a slow grin formed on his face.

"I dabbled in acting. If you think that's weird, you should have seen what Moony acted in before that night. I have no idea how the hell he landed that role as the spoiled king in _Dragonheart_."

She perked up at that.

"I love that movie!"

"Of course you would, principessa," said the blond kid with the crown.

"I take it that the old man wishes to interfere in things not his business?" asked the robed person.

Sirius eyed them all warily before deciding to test something he suspected since Dumbledore couldn't get any information. If he lacked the sources to find out _where_ his pup was, then chances were that she wasn't part of the 'normal' society.

"Omerta?" he asked carefully. To anyone else it would be a nonsense word, but considering the way they all straightened up in a split second after he uttered it, he knew his guess was spot on.

"Civilian or Familigia?" asked the robed one just as carefully.

"Civilian with ties to the Familigia. Not like we used them much recently, but we were trained in how to contact them for old favors," said Sirius.

"Which family?"

"Vongola, mostly, though the last contact we had was with the Bovino family. One of my uncles helped to...acquire...certain time traveling artifacts before they were busted. The Ministry never recovered them, and my uncle committed suicide before they could get the information on which Familigia they sold them to."

Well that certainly explained how the hell the Bovino family made the Ten Year Bazooka and why no one was able to recreate it despite trying. Even Verde was stumped on how the thing was made.

The group relaxed slightly.

Before Sirius could ask any...ahem...serious questions, Mammon suddenly lashed out with their Mist and captured an innocent looking beetle.

"What species is that?" asked Belphegor, only interested in passing.

"Not a natural one, I can tell you that much," said Mammon darkly.

"Animagus?" said Sirius. He looked closer at the 'eyes' of the beetle, and recognition hit. "Ha! So that's how she's been doing it!"

"Explain," said Mammon.

"Rita Skeeter. I'd recognize those horrible glasses anywhere. No one has ever figured out how she's been getting such blackmail on everyone for all these years, but who noticed insects?"

She must be an unregistered animagus like him.

"I sense an opportunity to prove whether or not you're trustworthy, Black," said Mammon suddenly.

"Oh dear... Mammon has that 'I'm about to make a lot of money and blackmail' tone again," said Puppy in a sing-song voice.

"Shishishi..." laughed Belphegor.


	5. Chapter 5

Mammon was in their happy place. Not only had they captured a particularly _juicy_ source of information, blackmail and the perfect spy...forcing the bint to sign a very binding contract with absolutely no loopholes before she was allowed to be released from the Mist constructs (the fun of putting the fear of god into some inbred hick was particularly satisfying...especially since it meant they secured a very effective source of information for free), but they found out that the Puppy had a very useful relative that knew the price of information.

They also knew the truth about the Puppy's heritage and kept their silence in front of the old man.

Considering Mammon had memorized the law books in magical England and knew damn well the ones regarding bastards and inheritance, this was a very good thing.

At least he took the fact the Puppy had entered into a betrothal with Belphegor mostly to keep them protected from being tricked into a contract during the tournament rather well. Especially since he found out her older brother on her mother's side could easily break it if he didn't approve.

He was properly angry when he found out that his "pup" had no idea what her name was until the owls showed up, and had been going by the name Puppy for two years. And that she refused to answer to anything except Puppy or "Lady Potter".

Needless to say she was still getting used to the latter, since she rarely bothered with that nonsense. Her teacher was also her Proxy, and would be until her brother returned from wherever he was imprisoned.

She had a natural distrust of magical England, considering how thoroughly they failed her. Especially when, after a little careful prodding of the less than discreet Care of Magical Creatures Professor Hagrid revealed that Dumbledore had _left_ her in the care of her aunt despite McGonagall's stringent protests.

Any chance of her trusting the headmaster or his deputy were now shot to hell, and it would take something major for her to rely on him for anything. They had put her in a home that didn't want her, and treated her like less than a house elf. And not _once_ did any of them bother to check up on her.

If they really fucking cared about her, they would have noticed the damn abuse and stepped in before that damn blizzard. Hell, the Dursleys weren't even _subtle_ about how much they didn't want her around! And the number of neighbors who would be happy to gossip about Petunia's "Good-for-nothing, delinquent niece" and her "no good parents" had been staggering!

And they really expected her to be fucking grateful for being treated like shit for seven long years and treating her like some _hero_ when all she did was survive.

Screw that noise. She'd sooner gut the damn bastards than trust them with even an inch.

(And yes, she spent far too much time around Squalo...who apparently picked up his more interesting swears from her older brother.)

All too soon, the first task arrived. Puppy was the only one who had very little idea of what they were going to face.

However the second she saw the mothering dragon, the nest (complete with real dragon eggs!) and the fact she had absolutely no damn idea what dragons were vulnerable to, she knew she was going to have fun.

As the only champion without a wand...and hadn't that been amusing, seeing the reaction of the idiots who attended this backwater school when they found out she didn't cast magic with a wand or even own one...everyone fully expected to see a slaughter.

Puppy had a grin that was pure Xanxus, not that she knew it. Remus Lupin was recording the entire thing for the Varia to watch later...and hopefully Xanxus.

She threw her red hood over her face, making her look like a red version of Mammon. The Varia crest was stitched on the breast pocket above her heart.

She easily danced over the rocky terrain with her thick combat boots...modified by Luss to look like the ones from her favorite show... and she cackled gleefully in a way that reminded Sirius rather strongly of her grandmother Dorea.

All Blacks had the battle lust in their blood. It was just that some were too cracked to handle it without snapping in the worst way. Like Bellatrix. It went hand in hand with their special power that was even _rarer_ than the ability to shift into others.

There was a reason why she had Mist Flames.

Coated with indigo, Puppy took to the sky after shouting some nonsense words in Italian for appearance sake. Her Flames obscured the fiery wings by making the people below see dragon wings.

The horntail launched a massive stream of fire at her, and she grinned with vicious delight.

To the shock and disbelief of the wizards below, she pulled her head back just a little...before exhaling an equally massive stream of fire straight out of her mouth. The two clashed, but neither gave way until the dragon stopped.

Puppy managed to fly in close, but there was no longer a mindless rage coming from the mothering dragon...but a wary sort of respect. She released some of her KI towards the dragon on a hunch.

The horntail let out a loud, earthshaking roar. She amplified her voice with a roar back that would have made her throat go hoarse if not for the Sun flames healing the damage almost as quickly as it happened.

The dragon stalked over to her, a strange sort of expression in it's gaze. It launched it's spiked, poisonous tail at her, and she used her limited skill with Lightning Flames to harden the strips of metal on her arms (because Nacht sometimes played too rough for her liking and she needed to protect her flimsy arms from his fangs) to deflect the blow.

Puppy's eyes had shifted from a crimson red to a warm agate. If not for the illusion, her Sky Flames would be barred for all the world to see.

The horntail looked her in the eye, and she had the distinct feeling it wasn't fooled for a minute by her Mist Flames, and did something that had the wizards stare in shock and disbelief.

It _bowed_ to her, and got out of her way of the nest. And if she managed to surreptitiously swipe one of the eggs, no one noticed anything. Mammon wasn't a fool and was quick to hide the theft.

Puppy walked into the tent with the golden egg, and once cleared by the overbearing nurse (because a healer was nothing less than the magical equivalent of a nurse) was quick to leave it.

She did not like cramped spaces, and she liked this country even less.

"Shishishi... you got a near perfect score. Though some of the judges will need to see the...error...of their scoring before the next task," said Bel, hugging her from behind.

"We're going to have fun giving the Boss his new pet if he manages to get out of the ice anytime soon," said Puppy grinning evilly and blushing from the hug.

"There's always the shark," said Mammon, smirking.

Puppy snickered.

"Or we could make it the new mascot. Or even better, we could send it to Nono as a 'gift' and let them deal with it if it gets too troublesome to handle."

Belphegor's snickering was downright devious.

There was no way he was letting Puppy get snagged by some idiot now. Not unless the Boss decided to break the contract.

"In all seriousness, I intend to sell it to Verde. He's been working on a project using living animals and familiar summons. I'm sure he'd be willing to make something interesting with a dragon," said Mammon.

"We can still use it as a mascot, right?" asked Puppy.

"I have full expectations he will succeed. He would not waste something as rare and valuable as a dragon," said Mammon flatly.

In other words, yes.

* * *

It would be Bel who solved the clue of the golden egg, long after the minor 'friendly chat' (read: interrogation as to how she did what she did by Dumbledore and the shocked English dogs). Puppy opened it, and the second it started screeching Belphegor took the thing into the bathroom and attempted to drown it.

So imagine their surprise and annoyance when they realized that Puppy would have to deal with _mermaids_.

Her disgust was well justified. As a creature of fire, she hated deep water. She could swim very well, but she hated diving. More than that, there was the not so small issue of the date and location.

Since this stupid tournament was set at Hogwarts, obviously they would source the local population to save on travel expenses.

Hogwarts was in Highland Scotland, and the lake was a salt-water mountain lake with no geothermal properties, according to the maps. The task was set in mid-February, right in the tail end of winter, and the weather got abominably cold in Scotland. Especially this close to the mountains.

In short, that water was going to be fucking cold, likely with very low visibility and there was no telling how hostile the natives were going to be considering the English's view on anything not human, pure blood or magical.

Puppy immediately started making calls to Luss. This was going to _suck_. She hated the cold!

However that wasn't entirely the reason why she hated this entire mess.

No, she could _firmly_ pin the blame on the fact that the wizards had trouble believing she was commuting from the muggle village on the other side of the Forbidden forest where the magic slowly bled out until it became a normal forest (hence why there were normal animals like deer and rabbits until the Acromantula's territory began) rather than sleeping in say, a wizard's tent.

Something that had Mammon scoffing at, because it meant having to deal with too much magic to keep their internet connection, never mind that having a base near the trash school (in which Squalo was channeling Xanxus a bit too much that day) might come in handy later down the road.

After all, why would a witch openly rent a muggle house rather than stay in Hogsmeade when it was so much closer and took less time to reach the castle? It made no sense!

Never mind that with today's advances in off-road vehicles and the speed Nacht could run at, the travel time was barely twenty minutes to an hour, and they got up early anyway...rather reluctantly, but they still got up early enough that they were able to get to the castle before the first straggler came in for breakfast, which was at seven.

Not that they visited the castle that much. Most of their early morning hours were done doing homework, mostly to get it out of the way. That was followed by training behind a Mist barrier where Belphegor tried to cave in Puppy's head while Mammon sat on Nacht's head who usually slept. This was one of the rare circumstances in which Squalo allowed her to use her dragon wings.

Soon after they ate lunch, either from the Puppy's cooking or from the food she dragged from the forest and roasted with her dragon fire. After that was followed by a few hours free time, since they weren't on missions at the moment, or helping Mammon sort through the sheer ton of blackmail and information they forced out of Skeeter as payment for their silence on her animagus form.

Skeeter certainly didn't mind when she found out that Mammon was terrifying efficient at extortion and was more than happy to share some of the profits (no more than ten percent, but more than she would have gotten out of it) in exchange for her services. Mammon was also good at coming to proper conclusions that had several of the Wizangamot scrambling to cover their asses.

And that was in between verbally sparring with the goblins or cheating the hell out of high stakes poker with the older, more financially comfortable families. They were acquiring a healthy chunk of the available gold supply at a steady rate. A decent portion of which went straight to the vaults of Belphegor and Puppy, because they acted as "guard dogs"/conspirators during said games.

If and when the magical community found out Puppy wasn't James Potter's daughter by his wife (because with how nosy the idiots in magical England were about their Savior it _would_ inevitably come out) by the time they thought to confiscate the vaults and the properties, it would be far too late.

Mammon was firmly putting everything under the name of the Varia, under a dummy magical corporation of course, so that they couldn't touch it. Bastards might not be able to properly inherit most of their magical lineage (even if Sirius swore on his own magic that James had followed all the proper procedures to make Puppy a 'proper' Potter and heir by the laws of the old magic) according to the Ministry, but nothing said they couldn't donate it.

Mammon took note of which families were likely to raise a stink or press the issue, and methodically went about bankrupting them so that when the news got out the damage would be minimal.

Besides, the old bastard laws didn't apply to muggle banking, and the underworld only cared about them when it came to inheriting from Families. The hit Puppy took from that getting out would be minor, considering the gold exchange rate.

"If they insist on irritating me I am so dragging Sorella here so he can complain about the lack of fashion sense the wizards have," said Puppy darkly.

"Then he can deliver the rebreather I just ordered from Verde," said Mammon flatly.

No way were they trusting the dubious nature of magical methods to dive, when a Flame-enhanced rebreather was far more reliable.

Luss was more than enthusiastic about coming to Hogwarts purely so he could see the ball. More specifically the fashions available during the event.

That lasted all of one minute when he discovered the 'fashion' sense of the wizards.

Needless to say he was absolutely horrified.

"Please tell me this is one of Mammon's illusions and not real," he practically begged.

"Pay me and I will make it an illusion," said Mammon without looking up.

Puppy had a sudden, absolutely _evil_ idea.

"What are you up to?"

"Something that could make us a lot of money and give the Prince a very good laugh."

"Go on," said Mammon looking up.

Puppy smirked and told them.

Luss was all for it, because he couldn't stand such tragic outfits. This was supposed to be a _ball_ like the one out of the old fairy tales, not some lame school dance where people had a taste of what clubbing was like in fancy dresses and tragic tuxedos.

His inner fashionista would never stand for this...this...disaster to occur.

Besides, it would drive the old geezers up the wall and amuse the Prince endlessly.

"Time to spruce up this drab excuse of a ball, darlings~!"

Mammon was smirking and already calculating how much money they were going to make.

"What chaos are you up to?" asked Belphegor.

"We're going to convince the students who plan to attend to update their wardrobe. And best of all we're going to upstage the loser pure bloods who won't know what's coming for them," cackled Puppy. Seeing he didn't get it, she grinned evilly. "We're going to set Luss on the magicals by having him 'sell' fashion advice while we watch the pure bloods flounder when they find out they could wear much more...interesting...dresses. At the very least we'll force the boys into much better tailored clothing."

Belphegor grinned evilly.

"I sense someone being dragged around London with Luss on a shopping trip."

"Who deserves the headache more, Levi or the shark?" asked Puppy.

"Send Levi. Squalo is needed to do paperwork," said Mammon.

Belphegor snickered evilly.

It started as a rumor. The one who created such fashionable uniforms for _the_ Girl-who-lived was also willing to give out fashion advice for the low, low cost of a single sickle.

Needless to say most of the magicals felt if this odd man was good enough for the girl-who-lived, then it had to be good enough for them. Especially the girls, who were positively cooing over the outfit the girl considered her "daily" wear.

She projected herself as a strong, confident young witch who wasn't afraid to tell the likes of the old wizards like Dumbledore where he could stuff his wand and had the magic to back her up.

It was hard to deny the fact she was powerful, because she was able to stare down a dragon and _win_.

Most of the girls squealed with delight once they saw what this...Lussuria...had to offer them. Most had never seen such dresses, especially the pure bloods.

By the time the ball came around, many of them will have ordered through Mammon new gowns that their fathers would never have approved of. And the boys...well, they were equally quick to update their outfits, particularly Ron. He hated the one his mother insisted on buying him.


	6. Chapter 6

Puppy twirled in her gown, observing how the fabric flowed this way and that. She loved dressing up, especially tonight. Belphegor had been immediately spoken for her as her date, for it wouldn't be proper if a Princess didn't dance with her Prince. She even had the tiara to prove it, and freshly pierced ears. Luss had been eager to play off the whole "royal ball" theme.

The red silk was accented with black lace. It had the edgy theme of fire going for it and there was a dragon that curled around the entire length of the bottom until it ate it's own tail, which was a traditional symbol for the Ouroboros. A relatively minor reminder that she was Mammon's apprentice, because occasionally Mammon had their frog become an ouroboros that allowed them to float off the ground.

The tiara itself was a bright silver with rubies and onyx set in it. It had the emblem of the Varia were one would find the royal crest, and she was seriously considering wearing it everywhere from now on.

At least then she'd be a matched set with her boyfriend.

She was glad Luss wasn't forcing her to wear high heels. He had been nice enough to bring her favorite shoes that happened to have modest two inch-heels that were sharp enough to take someone's eye out and were laced with enough poison to kill three elephants if she was feeling resourceful. They were made from the same steel one would use to make a sword with, and very shiny.

Squalo was of the firm opinion it was a waste of sword metal. Especially since she had four sets, all in different sizes.

Her hair had been firmly brushed and she had the loose hairs tied up around her crown in a tight braid that wouldn't fall apart, but wasn't so tight as to give her headaches.

Luss had even managed to sneak into the kitchens long enough to have a very thorough discussion of the menu. He was appalled at the 'daily' menu the students had, and the fact they had no class meant to teach them exercise save for the house Quidditch teams! About the only work out they got was from climbing stairs every day!

"It's almost time to go, darling~!" Luss called out.

Puppy stepped out of the room, and Belphegor (looking very much like the Prince he claimed to be on a daily basis) paused as he stared at her in shock.

"Ushishishi... I'm almost tempted to skip this thing and keep you here for the night."

"One, it's a mandatory invitation since she's a champion. Two, you're not going to do _anything_ with her until the Boss is either unfrozen and gives his blessing, or you're both at _least_ seventeen. Three, we did not just spend far too much money and time for this stupid thing to simply skip," said Mammon flatly, with a very heated glare at Belphegor.

The Prince pouted.

But at least he got to dance with a real princess, and not those idiots he used to suffer through back when his brother was still alive.

God, he hated those idiots.

"Shall we, my Prince?" said Puppy smiling holding out her arm. Her 'crown' was set at the same angle as Belphegor's was. He grinned widely as he took her arm, and walked slowly enough that she wouldn't trip.

As nice as heels were (and she only wore them when she felt like being dressy) she preferred her combat boots.

Luss cooed at the image the two made.

"I'll be shocked if the Boss doesn't approve of this pairing. The Puppy and the Prince~!"

Mammon took a picture. They were going to sell a lot of these to the Boss if he decided to keep the Puppy. If not, well Puppy was interesting enough in her own right that information about her would sell for a lot.

They knew for a fact that if Xanxus wanted nothing to do with his half-sister he didn't know about (and Puppy was damaged enough that she would break the relationship off with the Prince to avoid causing problems with the Guardian bond he had with Xanxus) then odds were they could sell it to the Vongola. Or any number of "good" mafia Families that would leap at the chance for such a powerful Sky. Hell, even Luce's family would go to massive lengths to acquire someone like Puppy if they knew about her.

Which was one of the main reasons Puppy was "assigned" as Mammon's apprentice. Not only would people assume anything she did was because of her training in illusions, but it meant Mammon could control the flow of information with an iron fist.

There was a reason why they never bothered to correct the fact that the Puppy wasn't a morning person. The less inclined she was to wake up before Mammon, the easier it would be for them to cover anything she did in the mornings.

* * *

Once inside the outer doors of the great hall, Puppy and Belphegor lined up at the end. This was mostly because Puppy was the "fourth" champion, and they were to enter to the same pattern that the champions had been chosen.

A lot of the girls (and no few of the boys) were staring at Puppy's dress, but also at Belphegor. Most of the girls who stared at the Prince balked when he _looked_ at them with his best Ripper Prince grin. And if that wasn't enough, he made sure to give the same attentions to the men who were looking at his Princess with anything close to lust.

The Dragon Princess was his, and no one else's. He'd gleefully kill anyone who tried to claim her from him.

They entered the great hall, and both had a rather amused grin when they saw the damage Luss had caused with his advice. While most of the outfits worn by the students and 'extras' were now much more in line with modern tastes, they also exposed far more skin than the wizards were used to.

And the result of it showed. The teachers looked at their students with open disapproval, but they couldn't _say_ anything without causing a riot.

All Puppy could think of was that she was very, very glad that Luss had forced her to endure hours of dance lessons to get used to the idea of moving in heels. It meant she not only knew very well how to waltz, but that she wouldn't be tripping on her feet anytime soon while wearing them.

They were the most coordinated couple on the dance floor. The two of them glided as if they were one unit, taking full advantage of the fact this was a _civilian_ dance.

No sane person danced at the mafia balls. They would feel too exposed, like a fat gazelle in the territory of a starving lion pride.

Mammon was recording the entire thing for later. Luss was too busy sighing or cooing at the outfits, but kept half an eye on the dancing couple.

They were still at it when the other students joined in on the formal dancing. To be fair, neither of them were particularly interested in the 'other' entertainment that was to come after the dinner, which was apparently some popular musical band of the magical world among the younger generation.

If their fashion was this bad, they wanted no part in their "popular music". Fortunately Puppy only had to open up the dance, not stick around for the end half.

The wizards would likely think they had left to enjoy the recklessness of their teenage youth. Everyone knew that teenagers were bundles of hormones that would jump at the chance to be with their lovers and go at it like bunnies. Especially at or after a big dance.

Mammon inwardly snorted. The only thing these two had lined up once they left was a job. Puppy and the Prince would change out of their 'pretty' clothes and go into something that would be a lot easier to wash the blood off of.

And they would make damn sure that anything they got up to after the mission was limited to heavy petting only. Mammon could care less if the two made out on the couch, but they were not going to deal with the Boss being pissed that his little sister and the Prince brat had gotten that far before she was at least sixteen.

Xanxus was surprisingly firm about that fact for some reason. None of them had dared to ask why, but it likely had something to do with the age of consent in Italy.

"Shishishi... the Prince is having fun. At least it's not boring like they used to be," said Bel.

"This was a lot of fun. Almost makes me wish I could attend the other balls," said Puppy grinning.

The two of them were studiously ignoring the fact Dumbledore was within the right range of their table to talk. To be fair, they had been ignoring him since his ploy to used Black as a way to separate them had failed so spectacularly.

The man wasn't Stupid. He had either sensed that trying to split them apart, or remove Puppy from Mammon's care was a bad idea, or he genuinely cared about Puppy's choices.

They ate a small amount of the selections, since neither of them were foolish enough to not suspect the old man would try something with the food. It took little effort to slip out the back and take Nacht back to the house, where they changed into something a bit easier to move in.

In the spirit of fun, they were dressed as odd ninjas.

* * *

 _On the eve of the second task..._

Belphegor didn't know what the old goat wanted with him, but he would openly admit to being curious what information he had on his brother. He wasn't surprised the man recognized him, he was of a magical line of royalty and most of the Who's Who knew who he was.

Which begged the question of what information the old man had on that idiot Rasiel.

His instincts as a killer had him roll to the side the second he was fully in the office, dodging a stunner.

"Ushishishi... if you intend to kill me, I will not go down easily old peasant," sneered Belphegor.

His killer instinct rose to the forefront, and his grin turned positively evil. He already had his first knife in his hand, and he made sure to stab the second person in the room before they could try again.

"Dammit boy stand still so we can prepare you for the task!" demanded Karkaroff.

"Ushishishi... foolish peasant, did you really think the Prince would go down as easily as the civilians?" said Belphegor. He pointed his knife at the old goat. "You said you had information on Rasiel. Tell me or I'll paint this entire room with your blood."

Dumbledore winced. The way the boy's magic coiled around him said perfectly well that he _would_ make good on his threat to kill them all. He would do it without hesitation and no little amount of glee.

"Your brother is alive."

Belphegor paused, before he snarled.

"He can't be. I made sure to kill him!" he said in fury.

"I assure you, that Prince Rasiel is very much alive."

Belphegor's fury was so strong you could literally feel it in the air. Rage filled his expression, as he went to kill Dumbledore for his "lies".

It took twelve stunners to take the enraged Prince down, and a much stronger sedative from Severus to knock him out long enough to put him into the lake.

Dumbledore sighed, before he winced. He had known the Prince would be the hardest one they would have to deal with, but he hadn't realized the extent of his hatred to his own twin.

The worst part was the sheer bloodlust the boy had given off when he threatened to murder them all. He would have to increase his plans to remove the Potter girl from his presence.

She was in much greater danger from her betrothed than she was from Voldemort. She might not live to see seventeen at this rate if she stayed with him!

Alas, he would not be able to weather the political shit storm if he were to simply kill the boy. Even he hated politics, especially during trying times such as these.

Puppy was positively livid when she realized that the "thing" they had taken was Belphegor. It hadn't been hard to figure out...she had paid Mammon to find his location before the task because she had hoped he would give her a kiss for good luck.

Except Mammon's ability indicated he was _in_ the lake already.

She was going to rescue her boyfriend, and once he was warmed up from spending so long in the freezing lake they were going to give these bastards hell. No way would Belphegor consent to being her hostage!

She put the rebreather in her mouth, and was very, very glad that Luss had managed to find an insulated diving suit that didn't look like crap. With her goggles on her head, she waited for the signal before doing a backflip into the water.

Hey, if she was going to be forced to swim in the middle of freaking February in a salt water lake deep in the highlands of Scotland, she planned to do it with style.

Once she started moving and warmed up, it took little time for her to head to the center of the lake. She frowned the second she got there.

Weren't the hostages supposed to look peaceful? Bel had a definite scowl of fixed rage on his expression.

What had happened that he would look _that_ angry even while unconscious?

She reached into her ankle holster to take out the knife. Only an idiot went into a magical lake only armed with a wand or their Flames. This deep, you'd be lucky to get a spell off.

Knives were much quicker and far more reliable.

With a few cuts, she freed Belphegor from his bindings. Just being this close, she could feel his fury and if not for the depths he would have burst into Storm Flames.

Something had _definitely_ happened if he was this close to losing control.

She was about to leave the area, at least until she saw the little girl. A little girl who looked on the verge of waking up, and was clearly in pain from being this deep.

It was official. She was going to absolutely murder the judges for sending anyone with Veela heritage this deep. Everyone knew Veela were fire creatures and not meant to spend this much time underwater!

She made sure to position Bel on her shoulder, before slowly swimming to the girl.

The mermaid in charge of the captives sneered at her.

" _Only one hostage per champion."_

Like hell was she leaving a fellow Fire Elemental in the damn lake. She highly doubted Fleur would be able to make it this far.

The sheer level of killing intent she let off had the mermaids look at her as a threat. Strangely, it also got the Storm Flames in Belphegor to calm down.

How weird.

She raised her knife and her eyes made it clear. Either she took the little girl back to the surface peacefully, or she was going to kill however many she needed to before freeing her.

The mermaid wisely backed off. She cut the ropes, and began her slower ascent back up to the surface. Both because of the extra weight, but also because she had no desire to be stuck in a damn tank because she came up too fast and got the bends.

Damn wizards and their stupid ideas. Who the hell came up with this stupid idea for a task anyway?!

The second they breached the surface, well within the time limit, Belphegor's positively furious killing intent spread across the area. He was in a downright murderous mood.

"Ka-ching. I'm going to kill that old man the first chance I get."

The little girl thankfully could swim, but she kept close to Puppy. Mostly because she wasn't that good at swimming.

Puppy removed her rebreather.

"First you're going to tell me what the hell that man told you to piss you off this much, and then we'll plan his long overdue demise in the most painful and horrifying fashion outside the better slasher films," she said flatly.

"Ushishishi...and this is why you're _my_ Princess," he said, his foul mood partially appeased. "I'm still going to be the one who kills him though."

"Fair enough."

"Gabrielle!" yelled Fleur, hugging the little girl tightly in relief.

Belphegor looked right at Dumbledore, who flinched openly.

Before he could make an attempt on the old man, Puppy firmly dragged him to the medical tent.

"You are Quality, my Prince. You know just as well as I do that we do not pull off missions where we can be _seen_. There is a proper way of things," hissed Puppy.

Belphegor looked disappointed, but did not argue with her. He allowed her to fuss over him, and they waited for the scores to be given before they headed straight to the house.

His first demand once he saw Mammon and there weren't any pesky wizards or witnesses around said volumes of what had happened in that office.

"I want you to do that snot tracking trick of yours to find someone," he said flatly, in a tone that said he would accept no arguments or complaints.

"Who is it?"

"Rasiel," he said flatly. "My twin brother."

Mammon paused, before calmly stating "My ability does not track the dead."

"I know that. But something that old man said bothers me and I want to be sure."

Mammon was dubious, but gathered their energy and blew into the paper. They obviously expected nothing to happen outside of wasted effort. After all, it was well known in the Varia that Belphegor had killed his older twin brother before being found by the Boss and taken in because he was bored.

But the moment they opened the paper and found an _active_ tracking spot, they stared.

Belphegor's bloodlust was so thick it would choke a civilian. It was excited, furious, confused, and quite frankly it was a mess of emotions. His Storm Flames were dangerously bordering going out of control.

So Puppy did the only thing she could think of to calm him down.

She pulled his face to hers and kissed him, making sure to bite his lip so it bled.

For a few precious seconds nothing seemed to happen, outside of Belphegor being on the verge of an overload. But then his mind seemed to register who was kissing him, and hit a reboot.

Mammon was quick to destroy the paper, just in case. They would not track down the Ripper Prince's brother a second time without the Boss around to keep the brat from killing himself because he didn't have a viable target.

"Try to calm him down. Anything short of intercourse is allowed," said Mammon.

"I think the resident colony of Acromantula might be challenging enough to calm his ass down," said Puppy, already making sure to keep Belphegor occupied while she made plans to take him deep into the Forbidden Forest for a cull.


	7. Chapter 7

Belphegor was in a fine mood as he slaughtered everything that came into his path, save for Puppy. He kept enough presence of mind to avoid her, not that she was stupid.

When there wasn't anything left for him to kill, she cautiously made it down and didn't say a thing. Instead, she pulled him into a tight hug. Belphegor snarled and tried to bite her, but eventually the mindless rage he had been suffering from coasted and crashed, leaving only a painful numb sensation.

For the first time since he was a small child, Belphegor cried and leaned into someone for comfort. Regardless of how he acted normally, deep inside he was still a child.

Puppy didn't say anything, for what words could she say that could take away the soul crushing agony he was suffering. She wrapped herself and Bel under her blood red cloak and let him release all the emotions he had bottled up the second he found out his twin brother _might_ be alive. Her arms were so firmly around him that there was no chance that he would ever be able to break away from them, not that he possibly could in this condition.

Weakness wasn't allowed in the Varia. They were the elite, the top assassins in the underworld. They couldn't _afford_ to show weakness.

But here, in this enchanted forest surrounded by the corpses of the spiders, he could allow himself to be weak. Puppy expected nothing out of him and demanded even less.

They were broken children who were never allowed to be children in the first place.

It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. But once she was sure Belphegor was sleeping soundly, she carefully maneuvered him onto Nacht and held onto him while the wolf took them straight back to the house they had commandeered.

Mammon said nothing as Puppy put Belphegor into one of the beds and curled up next to him.

He was going to need some time before he stabilized and went back to normal, and there was no way he was in any condition to take missions at the moment.

They needed the Boss, now more than ever.

Once Mammon was certain the two were out cold, they turned the entire house into a territory and cut it off. No wizards would be able to find it. If Belphegor wasn't back to normal in a week, they would call Squalo.

 _Deep in the basements of the Vongola..._

A thick crack formed in the ice, as steam began to pour of it. It was only a little bit, but it would begin to pour out even faster as the days turned to weeks.

Within a month of the second task, the ice had melted enough that a head could be seen. Blood red eyes opened for the first time in years, and they were _pissed_.

Xanxus was very much on the way to being freed from his icy prison.

* * *

It took a week, but Belphegor was finally back to his obnoxious self. But there had been a change in the strange dynamic of the trio. Before he had mostly dismissed Puppy's existence as a potential girlfriend he could ignore later. After all, being in a betrothal contract rarely meant there was love involved.

Now, however, Belphegor would go out of his way after their missions to curl up against her. Whenever they watched movies or shows together, he would usually find some way to end up with his head in her lap, or otherwise near her.

So long as the two weren't up to any mischief that involved anything past second base, Mammon ignored the two. It wasn't their problem, and to be honest they were good for each other.

As the third task drew closer, it was becoming very obvious that things were about to come to a rather dramatic end. Puppy could sense something was coming, and upped her training schedule accordingly. Her already lethal attacks were now far more terrifying as Mammon did not hold back any punches when it came to training her Mist flames.

The dragon fire trick she loved so much became much stronger, more refined. The time it took to gather enough energy dropped dramatically, and she could fly without wasting so much of her Flames.

When the Varia trained for a major fight, they did not accept reasons like exhaustion as a reason to stop. They trained until they dropped, and once they were able to move again, they kept on training.

It wasn't that Puppy expected the wizards or even the Death Eaters to be a threat, but more that she was expecting trouble from home. Like the kind the Varia would likely get if her existence and the fact she was related to Xanxus got out to the underworld, or worse, to Nono. She was Quality, and she planned to prove it even if it killed her.

As the third task slowly crawled towards them, there was an odd feeling in the air of the castle.

Dumbledore _definitely_ didn't forget the feeling Belphegor had given off when informed his twin was very much alive, never mind the sheer level of killing fury he had when he was released from the lake.

Mammon was very glad that the contract couldn't be broken by any magical interference. Only Xanxus or the Puppy could break it, since Belphegor didn't care either way. And now that he was very firmly claiming the Puppy as his future Princess, there was no chance in hell the wizards would be able to change his mind on the matter.

The old man was already pressuring Sirius to break the contract, but the dog was cunning enough to use any method he could to stonewall the issue, at least until she was safely back in the Varia headquarters.

Either way, Dumbledore made damn sure never to be in the same room as the Prince without a _lot_ of witnesses.

Finally the morning of the third task arrived, and Puppy was ready to end this. Her senses had been on high alert for weeks, and she wasn't happy at all.

The Champions seemed to pick up on her bad mood...or perhaps it was the fact she had half healed bruises on her that spoke of long hours training. Either way they were in no mood to piss her off.

The cannon went off, and Puppy as the champion in the point lead, bolted off with her superior speed.

She didn't need to navigate some cheap ass maze when she could burn through it straight to the center of the damn thing. And thanks to Mammon's trick, she was able to locate the stupid goblet in record time.

By the time the second champion was about to be sent in, Puppy had already reached the Goblet, and with a single well thrown rock, sent the thing off the pedestal.

Only an absolute idiot would pick up the fancy magical artifact after being dragged into a tournament they didn't enter willingly, never mind in a place where port keys were always a risk.

Considering the rock was laced with enough Flames to cause damage, it was little surprise the hidden port key activated. She sneered.

What sort of Stupid did they take her for? No one who could be considered Quality would fall for such a stupid and half-assed trap like _that_.

The hedges slammed down and the crowd looked at her stunned before a cheer quickly formed.

"Where is the goblet?" demanded Karkaroff, irate.

"Not my problem. I threw a rock at it to knock the stupid thing off since I'm not Stupid, and the thing disappeared. Go look for it yourself," said Puppy flatly.

"What do we do now?" said Bagman, looking flustered and with no idea on how to proceed.

"You can all go fuck yourselves for all I care. My job was to simply reach the end of this half-assed tournament, not care about the nonsense that comes after. I'm going home."

Dumbledore sputtered, but Puppy was smart. She had already arranged for Mammon to drag her straight to the house, where they could fly back to headquarters. Puppy had already cleared enough space for a small engine plane to take off a week ago.

By the time the wizards figured out where they had been staying, they would be long gone and out of reach. Not like she cared about this country or the people inside it.

Though there was the small matter of Belphegor's revenge, but he was so sick of this place that he was more than willing to wait until they rested at home before they came up with the perfect way to kill Dumbledore.

Having a little patience now meant that when they did kill him, the sheep that ran this place would never suspect it was them who murdered the goat.

Puppy was already on the plane and closing the door before anyone realized she was gone.

Once they were in the air and out of England's air space, she curled up into Belphegor's lap and went straight to sleep. She was exhausted.

All that training and she reached the goblet so fast it almost wasn't worth it.

She had no idea what was waiting for them at home.

* * *

 _In Italy..._

Puppy wasn't the only one taking a deep breath of Italian air. It was good to be home.

After the rather long nap she had and the fact she had left the idiots far behind her, she was in a good mood.

Such a good mood that she decided to make Squalo's day worse.

"I know that look. What are you planning?" said Mammon.

"I was thinking what if we made the shark and the others go through a basic dungeon crawl to find the princess?"

"Ushishishi... can we make it a horror dungeon crawl? The Prince likes those," said Bel.

"Definitely! We can abuse all those stupid horror cliches that make a good movie, and have them fight the 'Prince' in order to reach the dragon, only to find out it's the princess!" said Puppy with glee.

Mammon had the sneaking suspicion this would blow up in their face, with no idea why.

Hearing them debate which cliches to use and how difficult they could make the "dungeon", the first thing they did was send a text to Squalo asking if there had been anything to report. They had been on total silence because of the fact they were so close to the third task, so it was impossible to get information.

The first thing Squalo said when he found out they were back in Italy sent warning alarms in Mammon's head.

 _S- The Boss is back. He managed to thaw himself, and we're in the process of retrieving him._

This was big.

 _M- Is he aware of his sister?_

 _S- No, I haven't had a chance to tell him about the Puppy._

Mammon spoke up, interrupting their little planning session.

"Unfortunately it seems there's a big mission about to happen. One that involves all the officers including Belphegor. You're going to have to postpone your little dungeon pranks," said Mammon.

Puppy pouted but didn't argue.

"Will I have to be on standby?"

"No, this is one you can't join in for certain reasons. Consider this an excuse for downtime," said Mammon.

Puppy looked disappointed.

"How big is it?"

"Very. You'll be informed once things have settled."

"Are we finally dealing with those idiots in CEDEF?"

"No, but it will change a lot of things," said Mammon cryptically.

Belphegor and Puppy tried to wheedle out what was going on from Mammon, but the Mist refused to budge. When they reached headquarters, the very air was different from normal. There was a sense of expectation and excitement, and Squalo was more edgy than normal.

Something was definitely going on.

* * *

 _A few days later..._

Whatever the mission was, it went off without a hitch. Someone had been brought back to headquarters, someone important. Whoever it was was important enough to be kept secret from the rest of the Varia, and most of them were very nosy.

Puppy included. However if there was one thing she had, it was patience. If they didn't tell her outright what was going on, she would find out later when it became safe to go looking.

Three days after the big mission, she went down to the kitchens yawning like crazy. All this secrecy was throwing her sleep schedule off. She ignored the man at the table, dismissing him as another fanboy of the Boss. There were a few weirdos who liked to emulate his feathers and that scowl. However her dismissal only lasted until she opened up the cabinets and found that her pop tarts were missing.

She twitched.

Puppy turned around and found the new guy clearly eating _her_ pop tarts, and more importantly they were the _last_ ones in the kitchen. Her irritation from lack of sleep and the fact this idiot was eating the last of HER pop tarts caused her patience to snap.

"Excuse me, but who said you could eat those?" she demanded furious. Her red eyes were positively glowing with irritation.

The guy turned to give her a Look, and a healthy dose of killing intent was leveled at her. She ignored it with the ease of long practice, before leveling her own at him.

She dealt with Belphegor when he was royally pissed and Squalo at his worst when she screwed up. This guy was nothing to her.

She absently noted his scars and red eyes, but again that meant nothing. All scars said was that you lived through shit most people would die from.

"Who said you could eat the last of the pop tarts? Those are _mine_."

The guy glared at her.

"Well now they're mine, shitty trash. Who let a little girl in the Varia anyway?"

Oh it was so on now.

"The only trash I see here is you, old geezer. Shouldn't you be in a retirement home for shitty assassins?" she sneered at him, copying Squalo when he was putting a mook in place.

That pissed him off.

"What did you just call me, trash?" he snarled.

"I called you old. Or is your brain as slow as you are?" she shot back.

She didn't even blink when he took a gun out and shot at her. She dodged it and without pausing, drew a knife and threw it at him. It didn't even come close to connecting because he was already moving.

It didn't take much for their 'argument' to lead outside, and once he started throwing Flames at her, she was equally quick to start shooting fire from her mouth.

Unnoticed by the two of them, Squalo was running outside with a panicked look on his face.

"Shit... The Puppy found the Boss! How the hell did they run into each other?"

"...I think Boss stole the last of her pop tarts. You know how territorial she gets over those," said Luss.

Squalo paled. At this rate the Boss was going to kill his sister, or she'd royally piss him off and get kicked out before he could explain.

There was a sudden clash, and Squalo was quick to douse both of them with water. It didn't calm them down, but it did cool them off to find out who was trying to interfere in their "argument".

"Shitty Shark, you better have a damn good reason for that."

"What the hell you shitty old geezer, can't you see I'm trying to teach this stupid fan boy a lesson?!" said Puppy.

Squalo was once again reminded how much the Puppy acted like her brother, despite having never met him. He took a calming breath before he said the one thing that would shake both of them up enough to at least get an explanation out...and hopefully a proper introduction.

"Boss, you really don't want to kill her just yet. And you, Puppy, need to learn not to piss off the Boss."

Puppy blinked, before she looked at Xanxus better.

"Wait... this is the actual Boss, and not some shitty fan boy who's trying to emulate him?"

Squalo winced at the sheer level of anger Xanxus let off when he heard her call him a "Fan Boy".

"I told you she should have been informed. Now look what happened. I'm deducting the repairs out of your pay, Squalo," said Mammon.

"Shitty Shark, who is this girl and why is she here?" demanded Xanxus.

"Boss, you're going to want to cool off and be inside when you hear this..." said Squalo, wincing.

This was not how he wanted to introduce the Puppy to her older brother.


	8. Chapter 8

Xanxus was many things, but patient had never been one of them.

"Let me get this straight, shitty shark. The brat who called me old and started using fire like a fucking dragon is my half _sister_?"

Squalo was not looking forward to this, at all.

"I ran into her on a mission and she was using Wrath Flames. The appearance was strong enough for it to be suspicious, so we had a DNA test confirm it. Apparently her father ran into your mother during a bachelor party, and she tracked him down a few months after the Puppy was born. I only ran into her when she was around seven or eight."

"Explain properly shitty shark," growled Xanxus.

So he did. The longer he talked, the more pissed Xanxus became. He had already started hitting the hard liquor by the time Squalo explained about running into the girl in the wilds, and a few times he threw his glasses at Squalo when he heard something he didn't like.

However, he was willing to ignore his initial meeting of the "Puppy" long enough to be properly introduced.

Sometime around dinner, Squalo opened up the door to reveal the brat from this morning.

She was definitely nervous, but she had a spine and looked him in the eye despite the fact he was not in a good mood. She was also ignoring the killing intent and rage in the air like it was nothing.

He liked her already. Then again from what he had seen, he already knew the girl was fucking Quality. She went toe-to-toe with him and didn't give an inch.

"So... you're my half-sister."

He had to see the DNA tests himself before he was even remotely willing to start believing this.

Puppy (because she had never really been given a name) came within arm's reach of him. She didn't back down, but there was definitely a slight flinch when he reached up above her head with his right hand.

She was somewhat confused and a little worried, even though he was ruffling her hair.

"You've got Quality, at least."

"Like that girlie shark would let me be anything less when they were keeping me hidden from that shitty old man."

Hiding her as another Varia agent who happened to be apprenticed to Mammon had been ingenious. Not even Nono had batted an eye when he heard the news, nor did he really investigate.

Xanxus brought his Wrath Flames out, and Puppy reached her hand out to touch them. Not only was she _not_ burned or horribly injured by them, but there were weird flashes of images and sounds.

On a hunch, she brought out her own Flames, and Xanxus saw flashes of his own.

Like they were synchronizing through their Flames or something. Or reading the other's soul.

Once that weird moment was over with, Xanxus had no idea what he was supposed to do.

He had always been the outsider among the Vongola, the barely tolerated bastard son of Nono. Some of his brothers had accepted him, others ignored him.

And now he was an older brother to an almost fifteen-year-old girl. One who was damaged and still more than a little feral in some ways. A girl who fully expected to be thrown out because she was terrified he didn't want her or wouldn't let her stay with the people she had come to slowly accept as something close to a family. Someone who had been betrayed often enough that her trust in others was almost nonexistent to begin with.

And worst of all, the betrayal had begun with people who were _supposed_ to be family and protect her.

So yeah, Xanxus had no fucking idea how the hell he was supposed to handle this.

Needless to say dinner was incredibly awkward, even if he was openly impressed with her weird trick of cooking meat _literally_ in her mouth using her Flames as a way to keep from being poisoned by eating it raw when she couldn't use an actual fire.

And things only got more awkward from there, when the others finally started telling him more about Puppy, who he should really give a proper name to. Or encourage her to make one for herself, as a way to take back the life she should have had.

"Let me get this straight. In order to protect her from the magical trash, you put her into a _betrothal contract_ with the shitty Prince?" repeated Xanxus incredulous. Who used betrothal contracts these days?

"The magical world is incredibly out of date with the rest of the world, particularly in Britain. The last thing we needed to deal with was some civilian with no idea of what Quality is with ties to their leaders or worse the terrorists somehow getting her into a magically binding contract. It was annoying enough freeing her assets from their control and into proper channels," said Mammon flatly. "There is also another issue that cropped up while we were forced to deal with their stupidity."

"I get the distinct feeling it's not going to be good, so out with it."

"Belphegor was...informed...that his older twin brother is still very much alive. It was used to subdue him for a task where they did not ask for his consent before he was used as a hostage in a deep underwater lake with potential hostiles who lived within it. He reacted...badly...to say the least when Puppy managed to free him and one other."

"The kid he supposedly popped his first kill cherry on is alive?"

"He has become quite close with Puppy, to the point he will openly initiate real emotional contact with her. She is the one he goes to for support at this moment and she genuinely seems to care for him. At this moment the only one who can break the contract I had set up between them is Puppy's closest next-of-kin via blood relation, which is you. And since you are Belphegor's magical and legal guardian, it again falls down to whether you agree to allow it."

"So I have to give the brats my blessing, or I can break the contract?" he summed up.

"It was easier than allowing any loop holes, and since you were incapacitated at the time, it cut off any avenues they could have used to force her to remain."

Xanxus didn't like it, but he liked the idea of the weak trash that thrived in the world even less. Letting the Prince brat marry his little sister (who he was quickly gaining protective instincts towards, despite having only just met her) was a lesser evil compared to some of the idiots who wouldn't hesitate to use her to get to him. Never mind the fact she had a very strong Sky Flame.

"Tch. I'll keep the contract active and let them decide. If they still want to be together by the time they're eighteen they can get married if they want."

"Very well. As it stands, Puppy's existence is still a very closely guarded secret within the Varia. She had been good so far at keeping the fact she's your sister quiet, but all it would take is one slip up and the word will get out. Especially once people start asking questions about why you two look so much alike."

One of her major complaints was the fact she wasn't allowed to wear feathers because it made the resemblance too strong.

Now that Xanxus was awake, it was only a matter of time before people started making the right connections and asking questions they had kept from being answered since they found her.

Xanxus scowled.

Either they waited until the secret eventually came out and put the Puppy at risk, or they did a controlled release of the truth. Now that he was back, it would come out.

"Tch. Let's keep it under wraps until someone figures it out and rumors start. Then do a controlled release to keep the trash happy. I want to keep Nono away from her for as long as possible."

"Agreed."

Much of the meeting was of a similar vein. Xanxus was clearly adjusting to having a sister, but he had taken the news rather well considering he had been frozen in ice for several years. A lot of things had changed while he was gone, and he was already out of his depth trying to catch up.

* * *

Xanxus woke up and was about to leave his room when he heard the sounds of the men screaming, and Squalo's enraged shout.

"Voi! Fucking Dammit! I am going to kill those shitty brats when I get my hands on them!"

Xanxus left the room and found...a bunch of his men running around like idiots trying to kill an "ax-murderer" and other horror movie cliches and Squalo trying to avoid what looked like a makeshift swamp.

"What the fuck is this?"

Squalo turned to him, paled before snarling as he tried to free his shoe from the 'swamp'.

"Fucking shitty brats were bored and decided to create one of their damn dungeon crawl territory with a horror movie theme. I am going to fucking kill them, Voi!"

"...What."

Mammon floated, ignoring the mess.

"The Puppy has a decently strong Mist Flame, and they had come up with this scenario to kill some steam after dealing with England. The only reason they didn't use it sooner was because I told them to hold off until the 'big mission', I/E retrieving you from the basements. The only way to break this is to find the 'Prince' who is guarding the 'dragon'."

Xanxus looked at Squalo for a better explanation.

"Find the Prince brat to lead you to Puppy and she'll break the territory and let everyone out. Everyone is fair game, including the Officers and if you get 'killed' you'll be booted straight to Luss who is guarding the only safe area. Until then you have to survive a whole bunch of horror movie cliches and other crap, Voi."

Well at least he wouldn't be bored, and this sounded somewhat interesting.

Xanxus began to clear the rooms, though he found certain monsters/killers had a really, really annoying habit of "respawning" after he killed them. This included anything from "Jason" to the zombies.

He developed a rather strong hatred of zombies and found it very cathartic to smash their heads in with random pieces of junk. It was doing wonders for his anger towards Nono for lying to him about his parentage this whole time, or just his anger at the world in general. There was something so satisfying about watching a zombie's brains splatter all over the floor from an excessive use of force, or watching their brains cover the furniture from a sheer level of overkill when it came to bullets...

Eventually he found the Prince brat waiting on the roof, sitting on a couch like he was on a damn throne.

"Ushishishi... enjoy the dungeons?" he asked, grinning.

"The burn victim with the claws is very annoying."

"...You took a nap. It's easier to just get through it all at once without trying to sleep, because Freddy has a habit of making random visits if you try to nap," said Belphegor.

"Where's is she?"

Belphegor pointed up, and Xanxus looked. There, flying on wings like a fucking dragon, was the Puppy having a ball. She came in on a low pass, and almost tackled him. Instead she made a quick and rough landing.

"How did you like my horror dungeon?" she asked, eager to hear his opinion.

"The zombies were fucking annoying, the swamps were overused, and the respawn points pissed me off. Other than that, it wasn't boring."

Puppy looked pleased.

"We mostly threw in those swamps to piss off the shitty shark. It takes forever before he realizes that the swamp crap in his precious hair is an illusion," said Puppy smirking.

Xanxus smirked.

"Drop the illusion brat."

Puppy tilted her head, before saying "But it dropped once I landed. Once the hero finds the dragon the dungeon ends."

Normally she made them spar with her, but she didn't want to anger her brother.

Squalo looked so pissed about the muck in his hair, but it was nothing compared to how he reacted to the _real_ prank.

"VOI!"

Xanxus looked at the snickering Puppy and the cackling Bel.

"What did you do?"

"Dye in his shampoo. He should really lock his bathroom better," said Puppy grinning.

Squalo came in to breakfast the next morning looking very pissed...and with a fluorescent blue hair that looked like someone had dumped a shit-ton of sparkles into it.

He couldn't do more than glare venomously at Puppy and Belphegor, who didn't even _try_ for innocent. They were laughing too hard.

* * *

With the revelation that Xanxus was out of the ice (thanks to the incompetence of CEDEF it had taken until Xanxus had gotten bored enough to take on a proper mission to shake off the rust before they found this fact out) Nono was firmly in damage control.

First off, he wanted to find out what other information on the Varia was outdated, and sent a spy.

He fully expected to find it business more or less as usual, save for a few new things to add to the files.

Nono did _not_ expect for the spy to accidentally stumble onto a girl in her mid-teens with three variety of bird feathers on the left side of her head (the spy later identified them as crow and Kestrel feathers*) eating a large steak and using her Flames to cook it without the aid of normal methods. The girl had black hair with red accents, and blood red eyes that upon closer inspection almost made her a dead ringer for a female, teenage version of Xanxus.

She was too old to be his son's daughter, but she was almost certainly related to him if the resemblance was _that_ strong. She even had his color scheme, black and red.

It was also abundantly clear that the Varia Officers went above and beyond to hide her presence from the rest of the underworld. Squalo and the others almost caught the picture the spy had taken and quietly printed before he managed to sneak it out of the mansion.

Considering how strict the security measures were and the random searches, it was clear they would have killed anyone they caught with information on this unknown girl.

Which meant the girl was either powerful enough to get the Varia's attention in a short period of time, was the current Cloud Guardian, or one of the Officers had noticed her potential relation to Xanxus had had her tested, confirming it.

Out of the three scenarios, the only one that seemed genuinely likely was the last one.

If she had become a Varia agent the normal way, odds were that he would have heard of her before now. At the very least Reborn would have said something, and he liked to keep an ear out for up and coming talent if only to avoid them from bothering him later.

The Cloud theory also wasn't very likely, since if she were the Cloud Officer she would have had to be around Xanxus before he threw that Coup. He would have heard if the Varia had found someone to run the Cloud division, and Squalo had been doing the paperwork for it since Xanxus was frozen.

The last and most likely theory that the girl was related to Xanxus in some way was the only one he planned on working with. She was too old to be his daughter, and too young to be an aunt. Ergo she was either a first cousin, or quite possibly a half sister that one of the Officers stumbled on during a mission.

Now they needed to find out who the girl was, whether or not she was in fact directly related to his son, why no one had noticed her before now, and who she was allied with.

People like her didn't pop out of thin air, after all.

* * *

 _In the Varia..._

Mammon went straight to the Boss when their sources uncovered the first hints of trouble.

"One of Nono's better spies apparently caught a picture of the Puppy. He knows she exists now and he's asking questions rather than relying on Iemitsu."

Xanxus swore. Squalo ducked when a glass was thrown in his direction.

"Uh... what does this mean?" asked Puppy.

"It means the old man is going to have his damn nose in our fucking business. How much time before the ripples are felt enough to cause problems?"

Puppy flinched. She had only recently started to wear feathers in her hair... mostly on the left side, with her bangs parted to obscure a bit of her right side... but less than a month after she did, her cover was immediately blown to the one person she wanted to avoid.

"Not long. Nono is being discreet, but once people realize what he's asking things are going to spread like wildfire. We're going to need to do damage control in a hurry once it escalates."

Ironically it was Belphegor who provided a neat solution to share just enough information on Puppy without actually giving away anything important.

"Ushishishi...isn't the next Vongola ball in a month? Why not attend and bring the Princess with you?"

Xanxus blinked, and Squalo stared.

"Voi. That's not a bad idea. The Prince brat can be her date and she can stick close to the boss to keep the worst of the trash away from her. And Nono can't make a scene at once of those fancy balls he throws to remind people how important the family is."

Xanxus grinned viciously.

He could subtly snub the old man and keep the best information out of reach while still keeping his sister safe. No way would anyone get close if the Prince trash made it clear she was _his_ girlfriend, and with the contract it kept the weaker trash from trying to attach themselves to her.

"How good are you at intimidating others without actually breaking etiquette protocol?" he asked Puppy.

Her grin was absolutely vicious and it warmed the darker reaches of his heart to see it.

"There's a reason why I'm called the dragon princess and it's not because I can just shoot my Wrath Flames out of my mouth," she said grinning, with her canines looking more like fangs.

Just looking at the image of a vicious dragon behind her made his day. It would scare off the more Stupid trash and keep people from getting close enough to be annoying.

"...There is one thing you've overlooked. She still needs a proper name, and not the one we call her by. Otherwise people will talk," said Mammon.

"How about Raven? I could wear raven feathers in my hair and everything," she said cheerfully.

With a plan set to slowly spread little tidbits of information on the newly named "Raven", the Officers prepared for the hard task of dealing with Nono once he found out Xanxus had a half sister.

The man was really annoying sometimes.

 _Crow feathers- Secret Magic of creation is calling, master of illusion, sacred law, universal law_

 _Kestrel feathers- mental speed, agility, grace_

 _Raven feathers- magic, shape-shifting, creation_


	9. Chapter 9

Raven was in a dress almost identical to the one she wore to the Yule Ball, except this one had more of a 'fire' theme in addition to the ouroboros dragon curling around the bottom. She had a red cloak pinned to her shoulders, one that would disperse into ravens when she removed it. It was a Mist illusion meant to disorient and confuse the mafioso.

She had the "Varia Crown" as Luss had called it firmly on her head in the same place as Belphegor's own, and her shoes were designed to look like talons. Fortunately the heel wasn't curved, so she could still walk in them.

The overall effect she was trying to present was that of a dragon in a ring of fire. And it _worked_.

"Ushishishi... as glorious as always, Princess," said Belphegor from where he was leaning against the wall.

She gave a proper curtsy. As annoying and boring as those damn etiquette classes had been, this would be the first actual use of the lessons she had suffered through with the promise of a week in the wilds with just her and her 'handler' Mammon and Belphegor where she could be as feral as she liked.

Belphegor grinned, before holding out his arm. She smoothly slipped her own through his, and he escorted her to the garage where the limo was waiting.

Xanxus had to blink when he saw his sister in that dress and the crown.

"I have pictures of the last time she wore a dress like that," said Mammon.

"How much?" asked Xanxus. And who the hell was her date last time, so he could properly threaten them? He didn't really care about the price. "And the crown?"

"Luss went with the whole 'royal ball' theme and had it made so she would match Belphegor. Considering she is your sister, the unofficial nickname the others gave her once the contract was made was the Varia Princess."

Which was why the crest on the crown was the emblem of the Varia, not that of her family.

As they left the car, Raven felt all eyes were on her. Fortunately she was allowed to hide her face until they were acknowledged and allowed in, where she would make a proper entrance.

It was all about presentation. The more she presented herself as Varia Quality, the lower the chances people would try to mess with her. She was Xanxus' little sister and she had trained her ass off so she could earn her unofficial title of Varia Princess.

She was no pampered chit who was only good to be married off or used as a hostage. She was a damn dragon who was more inclined to immolate the knights who came to free the princess while dating the homicidal prince.

Besides, she was a Mist. It was in her nature to screw with people's heads and laugh at them.

People were staring at Xanxus, but she waited for him to nod before she took the center stage.

Seeing the signal, Raven smirked.

She reached for her 'cloak' and the second her hands touched the pins that kept it in place on her, as if she were planning to hand it to the footman, there was the loud sound of multiple feathered bodies taking to the air. Everyone stopped and looked at her as a murder of crows took off around her, before the air settled revealing her full face.

"What? Like I'd be stupid enough to trust someone with my cloak in an unknown territory."

Someone a bit further back muttered something unfavorable about "Varia Quality" just barely loud enough to be heard, and another bitched about how annoying Mists were.

With that, everyone more or less ignored Xanxus. Most were openly curious as to who the brazen Mist girl was, and why she looked like the recently freed Varia leader.

It was a good thing she had grown used to ignoring others (read: other humans), otherwise the sheer level of staring and open hunger to find out who she was and everything about her would have been very unnerving.

("You're fucking Quality, Puppy. Once the trash see you they're going to be worse than sharks with blood in the water. Either walk proud and don't let them see they're getting to you, or make it clear you're not to be fucked with.")

Not that she needed a reminder, but it was nice to know her brother thought her worthy of such advice. Besides, she had Belphegor beside her. If anyone annoyed her too much she wasn't above asking him to make them go away.

"Ushishishi... the peasants are unusually interested in her aren't they?"

"Fucking trash," muttered Xanxus.

He clearly did _not_ want to be here, and the only reason he bothered to come at all was to control what people learned about his sister and to make it clear that anyone who tried to get to him through her was going to pay.

Sure enough, Nono finally noticed their little group. For the most part the Varia didn't really mingle, and outside of a few brave souls no one bothered them. The one time Raven went to the table for a drink or to get something to eat, it had nearly been mobbed.

He was also somewhat confused as to why Xanxus was even showing himself, after being recently released. And what his relationship with the mystery Varia girl was. They looked too similar for it to be a coincidence, but that could be an illusion. As the girl had bluntly demonstrated, she was a Mist.

Xanxus was not pleased when he had the girl brought to his office.

* * *

Nono thought this "Raven" was just a Mist that happened to idolize his son to the point she took several aspects of his appearance. He was wrong...so very, very wrong.

The second he brushed his Flames against hers, to see if she had a bond to his son, she reacted. Badly.

For a split second nothing happened...before a large amount of Flames was sprayed from the girl's mouth, setting his desk on fire and badly burning Coyote. More importantly her own aura crashed against his violently, revealing something he hadn't thought to check.

The girl was a Sky-Mist, and she had Wrath flames with enough control to breath fire like a dragon!

And if that wasn't enough shock, she openly used a Mist corridor to escape the mansion.

* * *

Luss had opted to stay behind, mostly because he had to heal a bunch of idiots and do paperwork.

So when he felt the unmistakable aura of Puppy (it would take some getting used to calling her Raven) going feral, he became alarmed. Especially when the feeling vanished so abruptly it could only mean one thing.

She used Mammon's trick to disappear.

Luss was quick to enter Mammon's room...and what he found had him filled with dread.

Puppy forgot her cell phone and her badge. More importantly while she _had_ changed out of the fancy clothes, there was a distinct lack of coordination.

Puppy loved fashion _almost_ as much as Luss did, and had the bargaining skills of Mammon. From what he saw she had switched into a pair of loose jeans and her favorite top along with one of the corsets. There were no shoes missing, which meant she was likely barefoot.

What worried him was the scent on the party clothes. There was something that smelled terrible but he knew what it was without a doubt.

Burned hair. There were even bits of feathers stuck to the outfit.

Whatever had happened involved fire, and she had an instinctive reaction to sudden attacks. She would shoot flames, and her aim wasn't always so careful with control.

Luss grabbed his cell and texted Mammon.

 _I think something set Puppy off and she went Feral a month early. She left cell and badge here, and changed out of clothes- Luss_

A few moments later, he got an answer...and he didn't like it.

 _Puppy singled out by Nono. Have not seen her since. Boss is pissed. - Mammon_

"What the hell happened and where is she?" demanded Xanxus.

Mammon closed their phone.

"The Puppy went Feral a month early. She must have felt threatened, because she Misted to Headquarters to change out of her clothes into something easier to move in, and then left without warning."

"Feral?" repeated Xanxus growling.

They had left the party the second Mammon sensed Raven disappearing.

"Squalo told you of how he found her, didn't he? He was on a mission in the wilds to find out what was attacking some low level family, only to stumble across a girl who bore a suspicious resemblance to you, down to the Wrath flames. Do you really think a wolf would listen to human speech, especially one that has no domesticate canine in it's ancestry? Every so often she goes Feral, and we've managed to schedule it so we can keep an eye on her," said Mammon.

Belphegor frowned.

"For the Puppy to go Feral a month early, she must have felt she was in serious danger. It's like her survival mechanism," said Belphegor.

Xanxus scowled.

"Why does this not sound like a good thing?"

"When she's in Feral mode, her survival instincts are in overdrive. Most of her humanity is surprised in favor of animal instincts, and those she doesn't automatically recognize are deemed threats until proven otherwise. And it gets worse if she's injured. There's a reason we _schedule_ these things, and it's not for her health," said Mammon bluntly. There was a distinct scowl on their face. "For her to use the Mist corridor, she must have felt really threatened, especially since she didn't have the presence of mind to take her phone or the badge with her."

Using the Mist corridor as opposed to say, apparition, was incredibly taxing. Especially when the person doing it wasn't a Mist primary. Mammon had only taught it to Puppy as a last resort, and they were still amazed she could even pull it off.

Xanxus was scowling more than usual, and he looked _extra_ pissed. They couldn't find out what happened until they found Puppy, and they couldn't find her until she showed up again.

"We can at least cross the entire UK off the list of potential places she'll turn up. She hates that area for good reason," said Mammon. "She'll head to places where there are a decent amount of forest."

* * *

Colonello looked out to the wooded area of Mafia Land's backstage. For the past few days his trainees were speaking in hushed whispers of a demon that launched fire like a dragon in the woods. Any time someone tried to get in there, especially with active Flames, the woods become so oppressive that it made even an experienced veteran like Colonello wary of going too deep.

As a result he'd had to quarantine the entire area for safety reasons. Anyone who went in there and got killed died of their own stupidity.

Though the second word got out that whatever was in there made an _Arcobelano_ nervous, it generally scared off anyone else.

For over two weeks, Colonello kept watch on the woods. Whatever was setting off his senses never ventured past the visual limits of the forest.

Then, just as suddenly as it appeared the presence began to dim on the third week. Enough so that he cautiously ventured into the woods for the first time in the better part of a month.

Colonello was extra wary, because while the presence had dimmed enough that he felt confident in going near the place, it wasn't gone entirely. For three hours he searched the area meticulously, until he almost missed it.

It was a Mist barrier... a good one. Almost on the level of Viper, if he had to be honest.

He slowly poked at it. It didn't spring any traps, so he carefully entered.

What he found and what he had been expecting were so far apart it was almost comical.

It was a girl. About fifteen to sixteen, with raven black hair that had red highlights, natural ones. There were several feathers tied to the left side of her hair, black ones, done by an expert hand. She had pale aristocratic skin, and was wearing somewhat mismatched clothes. Like she had to change out of her sleeping wear in a hurry and didn't have time to do the job properly. She wasn't even wearing shoes, for crying out loud. She was wearing a top with what looked like a modern corset in red and black, and jeans that were held up by an elastic band that were clearly meant to be slept in.

She was also definitely a Flame Active, and trained.

Hearing a pained moan, Colonello only had a second to get a good look at her eyes, which were a bloody red though not from any injury as the corneas were still white without any blood vessels appearing to be damaged, before he heard a very distinct snarl that was immediately followed by the presence spiking in warning.

She was the source of why no one could enter the training area for the past month?!

"Easy kid," he said in Italian, hoping she understood him.

She growled in a way that definitely wasn't human. It was almost feral, if he had to describe it.

Colonello carefully started giving off a bit of his Flames, and for once he was beyond happy he was a Rain.

For a moment he honestly thought she would have attacked him...at least until the aspects of Rain kicked in and calmed her down. He noticed she was favoring her left side, though the way she moved told him she was used to fighting in this state. Very used to it.

"Easy, little one," he said calmly, keeping his Flames out as he moved in a very deliberate manner. She hissed at him when he cautiously moved the shirt up enough to see why she was favoring her left side.

What he saw had him cursing.

She had Flame Rejection burns on her left side, and it was pretty damn obvious a Sky had tried to force a Harmonization with her. He knew the feeling, though the only way something like that would result in _physical_ damage...was if the girl was a Sky as well and retaliated with her own flames.

It took him a few seconds to realize she was whining, much like an injured dog or wolf would. He gently put her to sleep with his Flames, unknowingly Harmonizing with her at the same time.

He was going to have to call in a favor. There was no way this kid didn't already belong to a Familigia if her Flames were that well trained _and_ she was a Sky.

He took out a phone and called Reborn.

In the meantime, he was going to guard this baby Sky. He didn't like the idea of leaving a girl alone out here, obviously injured and terrified enough that she actually went _feral_.

Who does that anyway?

He didn't know when it happened, but he actually fell asleep. When he woke up several hours later, he noticed Reborn was trying to track him down...and the girl had curled around him like a puppy.

It took Reborn a few moments to figure out the Mist barrier and walk through it... but once he did the girl woke up in a hurry and went straight into fight mode. Her growls were pretty damn terrifying.

And then, to his disbelief, the girl actually _breathed_ Flames at Reborn. Like a freaking dragon.

Colonello had to almost overdose her with Rain Flames to calm her down long enough for Reborn to get anywhere near her.

"This is the girl you called me to look at?" he said incredulous.

"Wonder what she has against you? I mean you can be an ass..." said Colonello, trying to calm her down.

"I have no idea. Maybe she smells something she doesn't like?" said Reborn, almost joking.

The only thing he could think of was that he had just come from the Vongola fort after a meeting with Timoteo where he mentioned an unknown... Oh.

Reborn hid his face with his fedora, as a sudden epiphany hit him. This was the girl who attacked Nono in his office during the last party, the one Timoteo wanted found. Why he wanted her, Reborn had no idea but he honestly hoped it wasn't because he was trying to force a kid to join the Vongola.

She growled at him, at least until he pressed his Sun Flames on her side. She let out a pained whimper.

Reborn cursed.

"These are some serious Flame burns. Someone wanted her to Harmonize them whether she agreed or not, or they made an error on the strength of their flames. If she wasn't a Sky this would have easily set her into Discord."

The girl's eyes seemed to clear, the more the wound began to heal up.

She glanced around in a more aware state.

"It seems she's coming to," said Reborn dryly.

"Can you understand us?" asked Colonello.

She nodded. She was tired, sore, and dying of thirst. Not to mention she felt like she hadn't eaten in some time. Hearing her cracked cough, Colonello was quick to give her some water.

"Easy. Do you know where you are?" he asked.

She shook her head. This forest wasn't one she recognized.

"Do you know your Family name?" asked Reborn, hiding his eyes.

She looked at him oddly, before she reached for a stick and started writing a series of numbers, followed by the word "Puppy".

Reborn was quick to take out his cell phone and dial the number. He would honestly admit he didn't expect _that_ organization to answer.

" _What, Voi? We're busy!"_

"Ciaossu. Have you recently lost a Puppy?" asked Reborn cryptically.

Dead silence. Then...

" _Boss, someone found the brat, Voi! Where are you?"_

There was only _one_ person who used that odd verbal tick that he knew of, and he had thought the phone number looked oddly familiar.

"Mafia Land's backstage. The Puppy has some serious Flame Burns on her and is acting as territorial as a Cloud with intruders in the area."

Hearing Squalo curse on the other end, he informed Reborn someone would come to pick the girl up and get her treated.

Less than two hours later a familiar corridor appeared. Viper, who went by Mammon now came out of it...along with a face Reborn had never seen personally but had heard about.

Xanxus.

"Where is she?" he said bluntly.

Reborn had only a split second to register something flying past him, before he had the unusual sight of Xanxus being tackled to the ground by the girl Colonello had found.

"Big brother!"

Wait, _what?_


	10. Chapter 10

Xanxus picked Puppy up by her shirt collar and then got into an upright position.

"What happened?" he demanded.

Puppy pouted.

"That stupid old geezer tried to press his Sky onto mine, and I retaliated. Pretty sure I set that desk of his on fire with my dragon breath," she replied. Then she winced, as the way Xanxus was holding her pressed up against the injury one of the old man's Flames managed to inflict in the half-second it took to form the corridor and bolt.

He put her down and had her lift up her shirt. He growled when he saw the Flame injury. Then he registered Reborn and Colonello and scowled.

"I wasn't aware you had a sister," said Reborn, his expression neutral.

"Well I didn't expect the shitty shark to stumble across my half sister on a mission," Xanxus shot back.

The resemblance was so strong that a DNA test to confirm it was less of a necessity and more of a way to prove beyond any doubts they were related.

"How did she end up here, of all places?" asked Colonello. Because that had been bugging him.

"Mist corridor. She got a good enough look of it the one time we were here to use it, even if she never went backstage," explained Mammon, who promptly held out a hand. Colonello grumbled but still handed over a decent amount of cash.

"So... Puppy?" asked Reborn, smirking.

He would almost swear he saw dog ears and a tail on the girl, who was curled up against Xanxus and not letting go anytime soon. Oh wait, she _did_ have the ears and tail. Colonello snickered at the sight, especially when the 'tail' started wagging.

"She acted like a damn wolf when we found her, and her dog is bigger than she is. Hence the name Puppy," said Mammon flatly.

"Woof!"

Reborn grinned behind his hat.

Mammon went closer to her...and suddenly frowned.

"Has anyone been near her besides you to while she was Feral?"

"Just you two. She was acting so territorial I had the entire forest area quarantined until I found her," said Colonello frowning.

Mammon suddenly looked at them both. And then cursed.

"What?" demanded Xanxus.

"She harmonized with one of them. I can't tell which one, but it's definitely recent."

Xanxus growled.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that she doesn't have any Guardians already?!" said Colonello staring at her in shock.

Mammon looked at him with a deadpan expression...even if some of the effect was lost because half their face was covered by the hood.

"We've been keeping her existence a secret from the Vongola ever since we found her. The easiest way to identify a Sky is through their Guardians, so we've kept her far, far away from any Active or Latent Flames that might possibly be able to match hers," said Mammon flatly.

"So which one of you is attached to my sister?" growled Xanxus. He was not happy.

While he could acknowledge she would need Elements, he didn't like the fact he wasn't able to approve of them first.

At least the Sun and Rain Arcobaleno were anything but weak trash, and if she managed to snag any of the others it would make people think twice about messing with his sister again. Her only connection to the familigias was through the Varia and him.

It took a bit of trial and error, but they figured out that it was Colonello who harmonized with her, even if he was still surprised she had gone sixteen years without attracting Guardians already.

The few she had were either scared off by Mammon and Belphegor, or discreetly 'removed' before they could get to her.

They took protecting the Boss' sister seriously.

Now that he was back though... they could finally relax their protection detail so she could draw in some decent Elements. And after they bonded to her, the Varia wouldn't hesitate to put them through the ringer solely so they were worthy of protecting their Puppy.

"I don't believe this... how did I end up bonded to a dragon-girl?!" said Colonello depressed. "Lal is going to never let me hear the end of it."

Puppy's smile was so innocent it was fake.

"Aren't you the same fool who jumped in head first and took her spot as an Arcobaleno?" she asked with a cheerful chirp. Colonello looked like she had hit him with arrows made of words. It was rather entertaining to watch. "And the one who's made repeated attempts to court a known Tsundere who happily starts using you as target practice whenever you send her flowers and love songs that don't actually rhyme?"

"...Is he actually crying?" said Reborn, fascinated and openly entertained.

"Want copies?" asked Mammon.

"Absolutely," said Reborn smirking.

Xanxus patted his sister on the head. This was hilarious. Then he felt something shift on his back.

"I almost forgot..."

Puppy turned to look at him, only to barely catch something in her arms.

It took her a second to register what it was, before some truly evil cackling came out of her.

"What is that and why is she scaring me with that laugh right now?" asked Colonello, backing away.

"It's a special weapon based off one of her favorite series. It's a high impact sniper rifle that can turn into a scythe," said Mammon.

Colonello perked up.

"Did you just say _high impact sniper rifle?"_ he said eagerly, and promptly went to inspect the weapon.

"I'm going to call it Blood Rose," said Puppy, practically cuddling with her new toy.

"Until your wound heals up, you're on mandatory vacation," said Xanxus flatly. A would like the one she had would take a _least_ a week to heal on it's own.

"I can help you learn how to snipe at people with your new toy, kora!" said Colonello grinning.

"We are going to have so much fun with this once I figure out how to shift between forms," said Puppy grinning.

"Mu. If you're going to stay here until that wound heals, then you are bringing that wolf of yours with you," said Mammon annoyed. Nacht was seriously getting on their nerves since he knew his partner had gone feral and wasn't with him.

"How big of a wolf are we talking about?" asked Reborn.

"It's hard to describe and easier to see for yourself," was Mammon's immediate reply.

They disappeared to retrieve said lupine, with no small amount of annoyance. At least they knew for sure Puppy was safe, if on medical leave.

Colonello and Reborn both stared at Nacht, who was so big that it could eat them both in one bite.

"This is her dog?" said Colonello.

"Wolf. And it doubles as her bodyguard in certain areas, especially when she goes feral," said Mammon. "Belphegor is pleased to hear you're back to normal, by the way. He wants his girlfriend back."

"Well this is all fascinating but why exactly is Vongola Nono after a sixteen year old girl?" asked Reborn.

"He just wants something to hold over my big brother because he screwed up eight years ago," said Puppy. Her grin turned vicious and dark. "He was expecting a little bird and instead he pissed off a dragon."

Colonello had at first been leery of his new Sky. Which lasted all of four hours (the time it took for her to figure out how to shift her new toy from it's travel form into a sniper rifle) and then the two had great fun being a public menace.

Puppy was a natural sharp shooter, even if she preferred to use her "dragon breath" over guns. Now that she was on restricted Flame use she needed something to defend herself with. Colonello was more than happy to instruct her in the finer arts of sniping, in between some relatively mild (for him anyway) training.

Puppy was Varia Quality. Aside from a few things she couldn't do (mostly from the steal healing burns on her left side), there was no reason Colonello had to hold back on his training methods.

She was used to worse, and could take it.

And that was before he had fun watching the mafioso around them freak out over Nacht. The wolf is hard to _miss_ , and Puppy didn't bother to put a Mist illusion over him.

It was hilarious seeing how the fools reacted to watching a massive wolf carrying a slip of a girl in black and red looking almost identical to the Varia Boss (complete with feathers) who was carrying an equally massive rifle.

Hysterical.

Nacht was just a big puppy so long as his partner was around.

* * *

Puppy and Colonello were having a blast, getting used to each other. So much so that the Rain _almost_ forgot about the annual invasion.

Puppy watched with fascinated eyes at the massive armored octopus.

"I am the Great Skull-sama!"

"Dear lord... isn't he supposed to be a Cloud?" she asked amused.

"He's Inverted."

"That explains too much," laughed Puppy.

Skull took note of the two, who were sitting on top of Nacht.

"Who's she?" he demanded.

"I'm Colonello's Sky, Raven, but you can call me Puppy. Why are you attacking Mafia Land when you aren't on the banned list?" she asked curiously.

Skull paused, before he hung his head.

"I'm stuck working for the Carcassa family to pay off some debts. That and they threatened the circus I often live with if I didn't," said Skull depressed.

"They _what_?" said Colonello pissed off.

No one was allowed to blackmail the Cloud Arcobaleno except the other Arcobaleno. They took it seriously when one of their own was being threatened.

"Can I hug you? Viper never lets me do it and Colonello always has that silly gun of his on his back."

Skull didn't mind too much, and the hug was nice. So much so that he felt a warmth in his chest from it.

Colonello eyed the Cloud with disbelief. Clearly Raven's Sky was so desperate for proper Guardians she'd harmonize with people on contact so she could fill the void.

On the other hand, Skull's contract could now be considered Null and Void. He grinned.

"Lackey, you stay with Raven. I'm going to explain to those idiots the consequences of blackmailing you into working for them, and what will happen if they try to take you back."

Skull snuggled deeper into Raven's arms, feeling content and wanted for once.

She liked cute things, and Mammon always complained when she wanted to cuddle with the Mist. And Skull was absolutely adorable, especially when his helmet was off.

* * *

 _Three hours later..._

Skull was staring at Raven. Mostly because he was still in shock he had become her Cloud Guardian almost on contact.

Colonello was drinking a beer and winding down from the fun he had at the Calcassa's expense. Stupid idiots tried to press the issue when they found out he wasn't handing Skull over to them.

Even if it was creepy as hell getting the Vindice involved, it was totally worth it. Those idiots pissed him off with how often they tried to invade Mafia Land.

"How come I haven't heard of you before?" Skull asks, firmly in Raven's lap.

"For the same reason Vongola Nono had no idea I existed. Viper and the rest of the Varia officers kept any information on me on lock down until my brother was back."

"Brother?"

"Varia Boss, Xanxus Vongola," said Colonello.

Skull choked.

"So how many Guardians does this make?" asked Skull.

"Two. They kept her away from anyone who could bond with her, so she hasn't had any before now," said Colonello.

Nacht barked.

"Seriously? I thought all mafia familigias would jump at the chance to show off a Sky?"

"I'm Varia Quality, not some weak mafioso. What do I care about my Flame type so long as I have my family and my boyfriend? The only connection I have to the mafia is through my brother and his Guardians," said Puppy pouting.

Skull blinked. Hard to believe a Varia Elite was so...cute and friendly like this.

"By the way... are you a fan of RWBY or something?" asked Skull. Because the way she looked right now was almost a dead ringer for the main character. He liked it because the main character was so amusing, and they had a "useless" character with a lot of potential.

"I have a high impact sniper rifle that turns into a collapsible scythe, and I'm wearing a more combat worthy battle outfit that's based off Ruby Rose. What do you think?"

Skull grinned.

"Who's your favorite pairing? Personally I'm always a fan of Yang/Blake, and Jaune/Pyrrha."

"Ruby and Weiss all the way. Though I think Blake could definitely use more love in her life, so I ship the two blonds and the kitty," said Raven, eyes gleaming.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, nor do I care," said Colonello.

Skull and Raven shared at look, before grinning.

"I have all three seasons and I plan to get the fourth soon, if they ever release it."

"Marathon mode?"

"Hell yes!"

"I'll get the popcorn! You get the DVDs set up and we'll corrupt him with pure awesomeness!"

Colonello suddenly had a bad feeling.

By the end of the first disk he was hooked and a fan of Ruby, if only because of her weapon.


	11. Chapter 11

"Skull, your mission should you choose to accept it, is to help me with one of my favorite pranks of all time."

Skull grinned at her. Raven was so much fun to be around.

"What sort of prank?"

"Well I know you used to be a civilian, so it might be a little...gross for you. But the screams of the people who run into the prank are always hilarious and it's not like we're doing anything too illegal. Unless you have a weird phobia of dead things anyway."

Or had a weird fetish for certain types, like Luss. Generally Squalo always knew when Puppy was in the mood to be a complete pain in his ass when he heard the Sun squealing in delight for reasons he generally preferred not to think too hard about.

"Dead things?"

"Corpses, specifically."

Skull stared at her. She stared back with a completely amused look on her face.

"What? I'm an assassin and Belphegor is my boyfriend. If a small thing like dead bodies bothered me I wouldn't be in the Varia."

"We're not going out killing people are we?" asked Skull.

"Absolutely not. Freshly dead are always too much of a pain to haul unless it's to make impressions on people, not to mention there's always the risk that the corpse isn't actually a corpse in the first place. Besides, you know I generally have stronger senses than most right?"

Skull looked at Nacht, who was snoring away.

"Right. You go feral and turn into more of a wolf than a human."

"Well a combination of wolf and dragon, but yeah. You know why dogs and canines in general like to roll around in dead smelly things?"

"Not really."

"It's a sensory thing. Humans are too wrapped up in cleanliness to try it beyond small amounts like mud baths and the like, but canines and lupines like expanding their network of smells. So long as it doesn't impact the hunt or make them itch like fleas, they could really care less what they stink like," explained Puppy. "I rarely indulged in that sort of thing before Squalo found me, but I get why they do it."

"Okay, but what does this have to do with corpses?"

"Long story short we're going to raid a morgue for some John or Jane Does and then hide them in places where they'll be found and scare the crap out of people," explained Puppy.

Skull blinked.

"What?"

"It's like this... you take a corpse, prop it up in really weird and freaky ways for someone to find, then sit back and watch the fall out of people having panic attacks when they find a dead body in their room. It's hilarious. Can you imagine how freaked out Colonello would get if that happened to him?"

Mammon usually helped on the grounds that if they did, then the terror duo of Belphegor and Puppy would leave _their_ room alone and not get them involved unless by accident. And since they used Mammon to cover up what they were doing, that generally almost never happened unless they forgot where the bodies were placed.

...Or in the case of Lussuria, got a nice wrapped present from the two as a thank you for acting like their unofficial big sister. The two had a general idea of the Sun's particular tastes and he was always in a much better mood for weeks afterwards.

"...I won't have to do anything weird, will I?"

"Just act as my lookout while I do the rest. I'm a pro at this," said Puppy confidently.

"That I can do," said Skull relieved. He was still a bit weirded out by the whole "pranks via corpses in weird places" bit.

* * *

"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!"

Skull blinked, before he bust a gut laughing his ass off. Puppy was right, that scream _was_ hilarious to hear. It was high pitched and almost sounded like a girl!

Seeing Lal Mirch come out with an equally horrified Colonello, he realized with some shock it had been a girl who shouted.

Puppy was on the ground laughing her ass off.

"Yes! I got a two-fer!"

Lal blinked, stared hard at the girl before she started swearing.

"God dammit! Don't tell me I got caught by the damn Varia Corpse Disposal prank!"

Puppy laughed even harder.

"Varia Corpse Disposal prank?" repeated Colonello incredulous.

Lal looked beyond irritated.

"There's this trio of Varia members who go around planted dead bodies in random places with weird positions, then record the fall out for shits and giggles. Afterwards they use the dead bodies to teach the newly Active Storm division members how to use their Flames properly," explained Lal twitching in annoyance.

Puppy managed to get her laughter contained.

"Oh, so you actually heard about us?" she said innocently.

Lal twitched.

"What the hell is the Varia Princess doing here anyway? I thought she went missing after she attacked Vongola Nono."

Puppy's laughter died off instantly, and she glared.

"For your information that bastard tried to force a Guardian bond on me while he had his _entire_ set of Guardians there to subdue me. He thought I was a puppy and found a dragon waiting instead. Like hell am I going to let the Vongola control my brother though me," snarled Puppy.

Lal blinked... especially when she saw how protective Colonello and Skull were around her.

"What are you two being so defensive about?" she asked.

Puppy flared her Flames. She had finally come off medical leave and was allowed to use them again. Lal stumbled back in shock, with a sharp gasp of understanding.

Clearly Vongola Nono had thought her a Mist, only to piss off another Wrath Sky. No wonder she reacted violently.

And then Lal felt the rest of it and her eyes widened.

"You... You two _harmonized_ with her?!"

How?! Any Sky worth a damn should have already had at least a few Guardians, so why in god's name did she only feel the two?!

"Viper and the other Varia Elite were really overprotective. I wasn't allowed anywhere near Active Flames alone until my brother came back, and they disposed of anyone who tried anything. The quickest and most efficient way to bind a Sky is through their Guardians after all," said Puppy patiently.

Lal got what she wasn't saying. If someone found a way to bind an Element to her, then they could conceivably shackle her brother and the Varia in the process. And that was something they'd never allow, even if it meant having to keep her from collecting Guardians in the first place.

They wouldn't harm her Sky...but they would keep her isolated as best they could while hiding her.

"But why a corpse?" complained Colonello.

"How else are we going to train the baby Storms in disposing of evidence properly?" asked Puppy, cocking her head. "They're supposed to be assassins... if they can't handle a little thing like a corpse falling on top of them then they shouldn't be in the game in the first place...especially since Storms are _very_ good at completely erasing evidence."

Colonello thought that one over...and conceded her point. A corpse falling on you was more shocking than anything, unless they had some sort of trap or weapon on them.

The Varia saw (more like made) dead bodies more often than most would, so getting the rookies used to seeing one was a good tactical move and showed who had the stomach for the job and who didn't. And teaching Storms how to use their Flames properly when it came to disposing of the evidence made a lot of sense too.

Plus once you got over the gross nature of the prank and the shock factor, he could openly admit it was pretty funny... if you weren't on the wrong end of it.

"You are insane."

"Name one member of the Varia that is sane and I'll show you someone who clearly needs a reality check about his line of work," she shot back.

"Why is a girl your age even _in_ the Varia anyway?"

"Because my adopted family treated me like less than shit until I left, and the Varia actually gave a damn about me enough to keep me," said Puppy, eyes cold. They softened a bit because Skull was quick to hug her.

And then Colonello was hugging her too.

Lal stared at the scene.

"Why are you here anyway?" asked Puppy.

Lal grimaced.

"I'm on vacation from absolute stupidity," she replied.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot you work for the biggest moron in the Vongola," said Puppy as an afterthought. "I heard he only pretends to give a damn about his family and doesn't actually _have_ anyone there to guard them."

The sad thing was Lal couldn't deny Iemitsu was a complete moron. She honestly wondered why she was still even working with CEDEF in the first place when it only gave her migraines the likes god had only seen.

She missed COMSUBIN. Hell, she missed being a soldier, and not having the constant reminder of being the "failure" of the Arcobaleno.

Lal didn't even register it until after she felt someone wrapping her up in a proper hug. Puppy was cuddling with her and her training had her arms like steel bands...not that Lal really wanted to get away from her.

"You're not a failure, and frankly I think the way people go on and on about the Arcobaleno is a bunch of crap. Viper had to change their name just to get away from that nonsense, and they still hate it. Besides, I've never even _seen_ COMSUBIN training before... what's the difference between it and the crap we put the greenhorns through?" asked Puppy.

Colonello could have told her... but it was clear that she wanted to distract Lal from her "pity party" and cheer her up a bit. Reminding her of her old days as a trainer was a good way to do that.

"I demand booze or at least coffee," said Lal flatly.

Puppy grinned...and pulled out a well aged bottle of scotch.

Colonello sputtered.

"Where the hell did you get that, kora? Better yet, how were you hiding it?"

"Filched it off my brother when he came to find me," Puppy explained with a sing-song voice. "And to answer your other question, magic works on the same principles as Mist... if you genuinely believe it can happen, then it will find a way to work. Like Hammer Space, for instance."

"Wait... you can use Hammer Space?" asked Skull excitedly.

"I call it Scythe Space, considering I'm using it to hide my gun," said Puppy grinning. "So what was it like in the Italian Special Forces?"

Lal took a good, long hit of the scotch (it was really good stuff...worth more than she made in a month) before she sat down in the girl's lap and told her.

Having an attentive, openly interested audience soothed something in her. It took her several hours to realize she was actually _cuddling_ in the girl's warm hug. More than that, it took her just as long to realize Colonello had taken the chance to curl up next to her with a content smile on his face.

Puppy was a strange one...but then again she hadn't been pressured to accept Guardians that matched her like _every other Sky_ and more or less made to find a full set.

Her Sky was so very wild, and absolutely free. The only ties she had were to her brother, and he was content to let her seek out those that were worthy of his little sister, rather than present her with people who could be hers. And for her to be able to take in two of the Arcobaleno only spoke of her strength.

The little prank with the corpse was long forgotten. It felt nice just to simply drift with that Sky Flame around her, not forcing her to accept it or pressuring her into a bond she might not want.

To hell with her usual gruff exterior. She was going to take a damn nap someplace she could actually relax and not be expected to be _anything_.

Not the former Captain of COMSUBIN. Not the failure of the Arcobaleno. Not the only reason CEDEF had a chance in hell of actually operating under that complete idiot.

Lal felt the girl hug her tighter, while leaning back against the massive freaking wolf. It was clear she intended to take a little nap while in the "cuddle pile" of two Arcobaleno and the one that wasn't.

* * *

"Hey commander. You feel different. Did you finally admit your undying love to Colonello?" joked Oregano.

Seriously, why did Iemitsu have to name people after spices? Not that Vongola Nono was any better, with his addiction to sweets.

"Shut up. Maybe it's because I actually had a good vacation for once," said Lal.

"Seriously, there's something weird about your Flames," said Oregano.

Lal blinked...before she checked them herself.

And then she started swearing.

She was only around that Varia girl for _three days_. How the hell did this happen?!

Well, there was only one thing for it...

She was going to have to cut ties with that moron at long last, because there was no way in hell she was going to have her loyalty questioned when her _Sky_ was the Varia's princess. From what she could tell, it was her Mist Flame that had connected to Raven...she already had a Cloud in Skull, and Colonello was her Rain.

And since she was around Viper for so long, it was obvious that the rumor that the Mist had possibly bonded with Xanxus was almost certainly _not_ a rumor at all if that position hadn't been claimed already.

Puppy was...different.

A mixture of childish innocence and the darkness that only a true Assassin could acquire. She had most of them laughing with the story of how she had finally met her brother face to face before she even knew who he was...only for Squalo to interrupt their bonding session with the closest hose he could find.

There was a wild, untamed nature to her Flames that didn't come from the fact she was a Wrath. More like she was an inferno that flew on dragon wings...one merely waiting for the right moment to be unleashed on her enemies. A wild child that had merely been refined rather than caged.

Yet at the same time her strength was also her greatest weakness.

Family and bonds had made her stronger than she was before... but it could possibly break her if something were to happen to those bonds.

She was quite the possessive little wolf... it was no wonder she went by the name Puppy more than she did Raven.

Either way she'd warn the genuinely competent to get out while they could, before Iemitsu's stupidity dragged them all down with him without her to keep things intact.


	12. Chapter 12

"You want me to what?" asked Raven.

"I heard that the new Decimo heir was in Namimori. I want you to investigate and tell me whether he's worthy of the titles, or if we should put him out of his misery now," said Xanxus.

"...I thought I was on medical leave until next month."

"Low risk op. Worst you'll have to deal with is getting caught up in Reborn's antics since he's training the kid. Besides, after losing my adopted brothers I would rather not risk making the Vongola's position even weaker by losing another heir," said Xanxus bluntly.

"Do I get to corrupt him against Iemitsu?"

"Go for it."

Raven grinned.

"Does this mean I get to see Bel soon?"

"You are _not_ making me an uncle anytime soon brat."

"Not even with protection?" she joked.

Xanxus was not impressed with it. At all.

"Nothing past second base until you're over sixteen. And that's final. I will not hesitate to only let you on supervised dates if I have to."

Raven nodded. She knew better than to push.

* * *

"Everyone, we have a new student! I'd like you to give a warm welcome to..."

"Call me Raven," said the girl. She had a bored look on her face and actual feathers in her hair.

However something about her made Tsuna sit up and _pay attention_.

It did not help that Reborn immediately confronted her during lunch.

"What's the Varia's princess doing here?"

Raven rolled her eyes.

"You know perfectly well I'm on medical leave for another month at least. I'm not here after your student... far from it... my brother ordered me to act as a discreet protection detail on top of assessing whether he's worth being Decimo, considering the Vongola lost three heirs already."

"So Xanxus has no interest after Tsuna?"

"Honestly I think he mostly came up with this as a way to keep me from being bored and to keep me far from Vongola Nono until things settle down," said Raven dryly.

"Eh? What does the current boss have to do with this?" asked Gokudera.

"Let's just say I had a bad reaction to his Flames and leave it at that. The fact he openly tried to force the issue and didn't bother to consider that maybe the Varia do their jobs better than CEDEF ever will was also a factor."

"CEDEF?" said Tsuna.

Raven looked at him with surprise.

"He doesn't know?"

"I haven't had a chance to tell him yet," said Reborn.

"CEDEF is an external group to the Vongola. The current External Adviser leads it, though he's doing such a crappy job it's a miracle Lal Mirch hasn't strangled him in his sleep yet for being such a braying jackass. And don't get me started on the fact that the idiot hasn't even realized that several branch offices have gone rogue, provide falsified reports, or are about to split off entirely."

"Sounds like he really needs to be replaced," said Tsuna.

"He also claims he 'loves' his civilian family, but despite the fact that he's been given quite a few vacation days, he almost never goes to see them unless it's to pretend he still cares. I heard he actually sends ridiculous post cards with really crappy cover stories only a child would fall for, and that he openly parades his wife and son's photo around the office for anyone to see. All it would take is some decent facial recognition and a good hacker, and they'd be dealing with any number of assassins," said Raven.

Tsuna had a bad feeling about this. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear anymore, because a lot of little things were starting to line up in a way he really didn't like. He looked to Reborn and slowly asked "Who's the current External Adviser?"

Reborn eyed Raven with irritation, but it was going to come up sooner or later.

"The current External Adviser is Iemitsu Sawada."

"He's _alive_?" said Tsuna, in cold shock.

In an uncharacteristic show of empathy, Raven pulled the smaller teen in a hug. He leaned into it without thinking.

"There's a reason my brother can't stand the jackass, and it has nothing to do with the fact Iemitsu undermines him whenever and wherever possible."

"You mean to tell me that he's been living it up in Italy all this time, leaving my mother all alone for years because he's in the mafia?" said Tsuna in disgust.

"The man cares more about his familigia than he does his family. It's a well known fact. I'm sure Lal Mirch could verify it for you if you asked...she worked for him for over ten years after all," said Raven.

"Do I even want to know?" asked Reborn.

"She's my Mist. I also have Skull," said Raven shrugging.

"...Somehow I'm almost curious to see what would happen if you meet the rest of us," said Reborn flatly.

"Just out of curiosity, how is your student with large canines?"

"He's terrified of a chihuahua," said Reborn. "Mind if I borrow Nacht to put some spine into him?"

"Why does this conversation fill me with dread?" asked Tsuna to no one in particular.

"Isn't Nacht the name of the massive wolf that sometimes is seen with the Varia? The one that looks like a genetic throwback rather than a modern one?" asked Gokudera. Tsuna's dread only increased hearing that. Reborn's sinister smirk did not help his mellow.

* * *

It took less than a week for Hibari to notice the "new carnivore", and only an hour for him to challenge.

Raven took one look at the skylark before she openly grinned.

"Do you mind guns, or do you just want full contact hand to hand?"

Hibari blinked.

"Hand to hand. Less damage," he said curtly. His interest was piqued now... he was so bored with the usual fake carnivores and the fake baby wouldn't fight him. To have someone more than happy to humor him was a new one.

Raven nodded and slid into a loose stance. Hibari charged without any warning whatsoever, and she matched his blows without bothering to hold back.

His bored interest only spiked to happy delight as he was able to go all out on the female carnivore without having to hold back. The fact she did the same only made it better.

Hibari looked at the female carnivore with open interest.

"Wao."

"That was fun. Want to make this a regular play session?" she asked, ears and tail appearing, with a hopeful wag of her wolf-tail. And here she thought she would end up bored!

Hibari nodded with a sharp grin. It had been so long since he had some real fun.

"I think next time I'll bring my scythe. I haven't had a chance to test it against a proper opponent since my brother gave it to me."

"Your brother...is he a carnivore like you?"

She nodded.

"He's more of a grumpy dragon than I am in the morning without my pop tarts," she said happily.

Hibari looked rather pleased hearing this.

"I will play with you again later," said Hibari, actually smiling.

* * *

"You looked like you had fun," commented Reborn.

"Drama Queen," said Raven playfully. "He's Fon's nephew, isn't he?"

"From what I understand, he's not too pleased that Fon is stronger than he is and allows the Triads to use him against the Storm so openly."

Raven frowned.

"And if both the Storm and Cloud were harmonized with a Sky that was strong enough to tell the Triads to go screw themselves?"

"Then Fon wouldn't have to worry about his nephew or his apprentice. She's already integrated rather strongly into Tsuna's growing family. The issue is that no one has been able to harmonize with Fon properly to the point he can break ties with the Triads," replied Reborn.

"Personally I hope we get to see the look on Vongola Nono's face when he finds out that Xanxus' half sister is strong enough to pull in your colleagues, when they failed to do so repeatedly."

Reborn snorted.

"Considering you actually reel in your Flames and haven't even _tried_ to test and see a bond would form between us, you're better than most Skies I deal with."

Raven rolled her eyes.

"I was trained to deliberately keep everything _but_ my Mist contained. They didn't want the old jerk to find out about me before big brother was freed. He's cold enough to try and take advantage of our blood bond, even though I would never consent to being used against my brother."

Reborn didn't deny it. The fact Timoteo had tried _exactly_ that the first time he saw the girl was a bad move. Not only would Xanxus have reacted badly once he found out what Timoteo had done to his half-sister, she would have eventually picked up on the fact she was just being used as a leash against him.

The girl might be a Mist, but she had all the instincts of a wild animal mixed with a very healthy dose of Cloud. She would not be caged with false promises and honeyed words. Her only loyalty to the Vongola was through Xanxus and that was it.

* * *

Fon stared at Reborn with cold disinterest.

"You say she managed to bond with three of us?"

"Colonello, Skull and Lal. She hasn't been able to search for Guardians because her brother's men are protective of her. After all, she's a weakness against their Boss."

"I never took you for someone who would openly indulge in flights of fancy," said Fon.

"She's different. She was able to fight your nephew head on, and didn't give an inch despite the fact she's still recovering from the foolishness of Timoteo Vongola," said Reborn.

"Do I want to know?"

"He thought her nothing more than a simple Mist and tried to use her against his adopted son. He wasn't expecting her to have Wrath Flames as well, or a knee-jerk reaction to an obvious attack. She set his desk on fire and gave his Storm second-degree burns before bolting. I think you'd like her."

"Why?"

Reborn smirked and pulled out his normal phone before showing Fon the security video from the office. Fon went from boredly amused to genuine mirth seeing the girl shoot fire from her mouth like a dragon.

"I-Pin is going to get a kick out of that trick," he said trying not to laugh. She loved dragons.

"It gets even better. Her Varia codename is Puppy of all things."

"I suppose I could send I-Pin to get a good read off her before we are formally introduced. She doesn't mind children does she?"

"I'm fairly certain she's already met your apprentice along with the annoying cow. They were playing the oddest game of tag I've ever seen," said Reborn.

Fon looked openly amused.

* * *

"Do I have to interview a Storm? My boyfriend is only going to get really territorial if he finds out I have a Storm Guardian," pouted Raven.

Reborn gave her an unamused look.

"You are technically an heiress to the Vongola, even if it's only because of the fact your mother apparently had the Secundo's bloodline in her. Which makes you a prime target for the other familigias."

Raven rolled her eyes.

"Please, like they'd get anywhere. I'm Varia through and through and I already have a betrothal contract that's ironclad unless my brother wants it gone."

"A betrothal contract? Who uses those anymore?" asked Gokudera.

"Long story short, the magical enclaves are assholes. It was either make a contract with someone I could stand, or risk being dragged back into their melodrama because I'm famous for some ridiculous reason. I'd rather live freely as a Varia assassin than be tied down because those idiots have allowed inbreeding and a fireside general to do most of the thinking for them. I'd be little more than a very high-profile broodmare for them," said Raven with open disgust.

"Is it really that bad?" asked Tsuna, wide eyed.

"The Italian enclaves are more or less kept in check by the familigias and the Vindice, but for most of Europe, especially the UK, yes," said Reborn bluntly.

"The same could be said of the Chinese enclaves, though generally women tend to get quite a bit more freedom than in some of the more regulated ones. It doesn't hurt that they never fully removed the Emperor or Empress from power, unlike their non-magical counterparts. Even the Triads step carefully around the enclaves," said Fon.

Raven's eyes locked on to him.

"Wait...this is the Storm you wanted me to meet?"

"Raven, this is Fon, I-Pin's Master. Fon, this is Raven, aka Puppy," said Reborn.

"Puppy?" said Gokudera with amusement.

"It's my Varia codename. Mostly because when Squalo found me, Nacht was bigger than I was and I was acting like a feral wolf pup at the time," shrugged Raven. "I only came up with the name Raven because I've _seen_ how the Vongola gives out codenames."

"What?" squeaked Tsuna.

"Your father named his top men after spices, Vongola Nono after sweets, and my brother has a habit of using demons," replied Raven.

"She's kidding, right?" asked Tsuna desperately.

"Nono's Storm is named Coyote Nougat, and three of Iemitsu's men are named Oregano, Basil, and Turmeric," said Reborn amused.

"So I'm guessing you want to find out if I'm compatible with some of the stronger Arcobaleno and not just Lal, Colonello and Skull?" she asked Reborn.

Reborn said nothing. She didn't need to ask about his motivation for this... if she could handle Fon in her Sky, then there was a very high probability she could handle _him_.

She eyed the Storm.

"How good are you with unusual weapons? Your nephew is a lot of fun to play with, but I'd rather have a handle on the other half of Blood Rose before I bring it out to our playdates."

"Playdates?" said Fon with open amusement.

"They go up to the roof and try to beat the living hell out of each other with their favorite weapons," clarified Reborn. There was a reason Xanxus had only sent Raven here... she was Varia Quality. If she couldn't keep an eye on the Decimo heir and judge if he was worthy of the post, then no one could. And it meant he kept his sister far, far away from Timoteo until he got his head out of his ass while at the same time keeping her within sight of an ally.

Fon's smile widened.

"I'm decent with weapons, though I prefer my hands. And I find that people are generally far more honest when they are fighting to keep their head on their shoulders than when they talk."

Raven's grin widened.

"I agree. How about we let our fists and our Flames do the talking, instead of trying to size each other with boring words?"

Fon smirked.

"I know the perfect place."

Raven was rather pleased with her new Storm...once she got out of the hospital a week later that is. Xanxus was both amused and irritated. He promptly told Colonello, Lal and Fon to train her ass off so she didn't end up there again after a play fight.


End file.
